After a week of hints from the Social Activities Council (SAC) and rumours spreading on campus, SAC’s Spring Concert artist was finally revealed on March 6 in the Night Owl Café.
At the reveal event itself, Waka Flocka Flame was confirmed as the artist for this year’s event. Some of his biggest hits are “No Hands” featuring Wale and Roscoe Dash and “Hard in Da Paint,” both of which were released on his 2010 album “Flockaveli.”
Senior and SAC Ashleigh Moroni talked about how cuts in budgets to the SAC influenced their choice and how she wanted to make sure they could still bring in an artist that would be fun for the crowd while also providing good music within their $40,000 to $45,000 budget.
“We needed to have a little bit of wiggle room because there are sometimes artists that are in that range that would potentially take 40 [thousand],” Moroni said. “But sometimes they’ll get back to you and say, ‘Oh, what about 45 [thousand]?’ and there’s the back and forth on it.”
After SAC figured out what its budget was going to be, e-board members contacted their agent at Concert Ideas, a company that helps people or organizations with the concert process.
“At this point, he knows the vibe we were looking for on campus,” Moroni said. “We want a show students are going to want to come to. The unfortunate reality on this campus right now is that’s a very specific kind of show.”
Last year, the artist that performed at the spring concert was Rich the Kid in an effort to have a show that will “appeal to the biggest general audience,” that being a pop, rap and R&B space, said Moroni.
“I personally would never push our organization towards solely a rap artist because I don’t think there’s a lot of flexibility and structure in terms of people that aren’t super into rap liking that,” Moroni explained. “When you have an artist like Waka Flocka Flame that teeters on the edge of both the rap and the pop roads, you open yourself up to an almost double audience.”
Waka Flocka Flame was SAC’s top choice and the first name that was suggested to the SAC from their Concert Ideas agent, being told that he was great to work with as well as a good performer.
In line with putting on an engaging show for students, the opener will be FREE DAPS, an improvisational hip hop and rap group that creates music in the moment by taking words from audience members and putting them into a rap, said Moroni. She also explained how SAC hopes that the group will “take students off-guard, in a positive way.”
The line queue will open at 6:45 p.m., the opener will start at 8 p.m. and the headliner will play at 9 p.m. Student tickets are priced at $25 and $50 for public members. There are FastPass tickets on sale for $30, guaranteeing the ticket holder a barricade spot. The show will be held in the Mabel Brown Room on April 13.
Hayley Doda can be contacted at
hayley@kscequinox.com
