After months of whispers and anticipation, Concert Board announced last Thursday that Lupe Fiasco, White Panda and Guster will perform at Spring Fling 2012.
Despite some students' inevitable grumbling in response to the choice of performers, Tufts students often recall Spring Fling among their fondest memories. However, many do not consider the planning that goes into such a large production.
Concert Board, which is in charge of Spring Fling, begins planning at the end of the fall semester, according to David McGraw, assistant director of the Office for Campus Life.
One of the first tasks to be tackled is booking the artists. In the early stages of the planning process, Concert Board reaches out to an intermediary agent at Pretty Polly Production, who conducts research to determine who is touring and how much artists are asking for to perform. They then generate a preliminary list and begin the process of narrowing down options, McGraw said.
The funds for Spring Fling are allocated directly by the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate during each spring's budgeting process, according to McGraw. He added that the fact that Concert Board does not need to acquire any additional revenue to make the event happen is unique to Tufts; tickets are free, whereas many other institutions charge upwards of $20?30 for admission.
After The Roots and RJD2 played at last year's Spring Fling, some students expressed disappointment regarding the lack of a big?name performing artist.
"Many students look forward to hopefully seeing current, big?name groups play Spring Fling. The Roots aren't as well known on campus as the acts of previous years, and many place the blame on the Concert Board for booking what some see as disappointing bands that do not represent the music tastes of the general student body," the Daily wrote last April.
However, this year the TCU Senate allocated an additional $65,000 for Spring Fling - more than double the $25,000 that Programming Board requested - raising the total Spring Fling budget for this year to $150,000.
"We decided it was an excellent opportunity to really pump up Spring Fling this year and make it one of the best events on campus, because it is one of those events that almost everyone attends," TCU President Tomas Garcia told the Daily last November. "We thought it was one of the best ways that almost every single member of campus could benefit from the surplus money."
Students' hopes for this year were high when the increased budget was announced, especially after Programming Board President Leo Greenberg cited popular rapper Nicki Minaj as an artist now within Concert Board's budget.
But obtaining a larger budget was a preliminary victory for the Concert Board; there were still many steps before an artist could be secured for the event.
Given the budget and the date of the concert, the agent produces a list, which Concert Board then votes on, sophomore and Concert Board Co?Chair Nathan Harada said.
For the first time, the top five choices from the vote were released to the student body in the form of a survey emailed out on Dec. 14.
"We wanted campus feedback," Harada said. "A common complaint we've heard is that Concert Board doesn't really care what the campus thinks, or [that] Concert Board just decides on their own. We wanted the campus to feel more involved this year."
Unfortunately, Concert Board's survey immediately faced several obstacles when it was discovered that students were able to create programs that allowed them to vote more than once.
"We knew our survey was beatable," Concert Board said in a press release on March 1. "We had hoped that everyone would play fair and respect the value of each others' votes, but no such luck. The good news was that the vote wasn't compromised."
Despite the technological kinks, McGraw declared the survey successful.
"I think it was very good and something we definitely want to continue next year," he said.
Even after the preliminary list is generated, the process of selecting an artist can still be a complex juggling act.
"A lot of people don't understand just all that goes into selecting an artist," McGraw said. "We do our best to narrow down the artists to five artists we really like and from there we get into a bidding war with all the other schools in the area, because rarely, [with] the artist that we want, are we the only school that wants that artist ... In addition to that we have to make sure the artist is available on our date."
This year, Concert Board had more obstacles than usual to overcome.
"Late in the negotiations, an email from Concert Board's agent informed its members that LMFAO got injured doing the wiggle, forcing the duo to back out of its tour schedule for the spring," The Daily reported on March 1.
Concert Board received negative feedback from students because none of the survey options were selected, according to Harada.
"A lot of people felt like we disregarded [the survey] completely," he said. "But we knew people wanted LMFAO, and we tried our best to get them. It just couldn't happen."
This turn of events, not atypical in the music industry, forced Concert Board to play catch?up.
"By the time we found out our first choice wasn't available it had already been a month and a half of negotiations with LMFAO, we were already kind of late in the game, and artists we could have potentially gotten were already booked," Harada said.
In addition, because Tufts' Spring Fling is a set date - a popular date, at that - booking an artist becomes even more difficult, McGraw said.
Despite challenges and setbacks, Concert Board announced at Jumbo Jam that Lupe Fiasco will headline this year's Spring Fling, and Guster and White Panda will open.
"I've heard nothing but positives about the chosen artists so far," Harada said. "I think that we chose a wide range of bands that will hopefully satisfy everyone. We chose Lupe because we felt he represented the majority of the campus' desires - he's a big?name, high?energy hip?hop artist."
Although the lineup has been finalized, from a programming standpoint, the work has just begun.
"We will now be working to plan out all of the logistics of the event, ranging from stage design, light and sound production, security, hospitality, online ticket sales, staffing and more," McGraw said. "There is a lot to do when putting on an event of this size with a lot of people involved. So the next several weeks will definitely be busy."
