With a forecast of possible stormy weather on Saturday, questions arise regarding what will happen to the Spring Fling concert if rain does occur.
According to Programming Board co-chairs juniors Alice Chiou and Sheena Harris, under rainy weather conditions the concert will not be moved inside.
"There is no indoor venue at Tufts that is able to hold that amount of students or tolerate the amount of sound that will be produced. If there is a lot of rain on Saturday, we will have to cancel the event," Chiou said. "Students that purchased guest tickets will be reimbursed."
Busta Rhymes has a history of accompanying bad weather to Tufts; the Spring Fling concert Busta was to headline two years ago was rained out.
The 2003 concert, which also scheduled Reel Big Fish and then-student band Drowned as performers, was cancelled the Friday afternoon before the Saturday show.
No alternate venues for the concert had been planned for that year's concert. As a result, the University forfeited tens of thousands of dollars to pay Busta Rhymes and Reel Big Fish for their planned performances.
This year's Spring Fling weekend will include more than the day-long concert. According to Chiou, other events scheduled are Tuftonia's Friday night fireworks celebration, a "[Tufts University Spirit Coalition] and Greek Jam" sponsored by the Inter-Greek Council (IGC), and a side-stage concert by Apollo Sunshine on Saturday.
Aside from different performers, the security on Saturday will run similar to last year's. "Security was adequate last year, and we plan on using the same type of security that was used last year," Chiou said.
The Concert Board first announced that Wyclef Jean would be this year's headlining act for the concert, but on April 11, Chiou told the Daily that Wyclef was dropping from the lineup. According to Chiou, Wyclef had to cancel his performance because the show would conflict with his mother's wedding.
Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. also ran into scheduling conflicts when bidding to have Wyclef perform for their spring concert. Babson, like Tufts, originally planned with Wyclef to have him perform at their campus on Saturday, April 30. Babson had bid on Wyclef after he cancelled his performance at Tufts, but the same scheduling conflict arose.
"We had to move it to [Friday] April 29 because of [his mother's] wedding," Babson Coordinator of Student Programs Jennie Erdle said.
At press time, the Weather Channel predicts a 20 to 30 percent chance of precipitation on Saturday.
