Last Saturday hundreds of students enjoyed musical performances by The Ready Set and Outasight as part of UAB’s PackFest 2013 spring concert. Student tickets were $5 for a concert that should have been free. Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh, but at a university as large N.C. State, we ought to treat students to some big-name artists.
The official attendance number for PackFest are not in yet, though, UAB president Lauryn Collier estimates that somewhere between 400-700 students showed up to the concert. Certainly nothing to scoff at, but it’s nowhere near the attendance of the All Night Bash, last spring’s concert. Though, the budget for the All Night Bash was considerably larger — UAB had more than $60,000 to spend, versus $30,000 for PackFest (plus sponsorships and donations from IRC and Campus Rec).
As Collier said, if the people who showed up had a good time, then the event can be called a success. However, we think PackFest could have been more of a success is student input was sought earlier on.
According to Collier, there were no official student surveys sent out by UAB asking students which artists they’d like N.C. State to host. UAB did, however, crowdsource using the Wolfpack Students Facebook page and at IRC events. Collier said most students ask for rap artist performances, with pop-rock requests coming in second.
The last big acts N.C. State students saw on campus was Ludacris two years ago. Since then, it’s our ability to land contracts with relevant artists has weakened.
This is even more noticeable as other Tobacco Road schools are picking up popular performers, like Wake Forest with Macklemore, Duke getting Kendrick Lamar and Travis Porter, and in the past UNC-Chapel Hill has even gotten celebrities such as Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Why not us?
Luckily, UAB formed a new committee — the late night and concerts committee —that will be planning the concerts. Our suggestion to this committee is simple: Get students’ input — as many as you can, not only from those who are active on Wolfpack Students or in IRC events.
In our opinion, it’s better to have one or two big concerts with high attendance and popular artists, than to have three or four mediocre (at best) events. Let’s nab the good artists now — not five years from now, when their Top 10 Singles become throwbacks.
