UB to reveal spring concert artist

Abbey Whittington, Staff Reporter

The survey results are in and the University Board concert committee will announce the headlining artist of the 2016 spring concert Wednesday during the men’s basketball game against Austin Peay in Lantz Arena.

The announcement will be a collaboration between UB Concerts and Eastern Athletics.

Last fall semester, the UB sent out an email survey to all students asking them to vote from a select list of possible performers for the spring concert.

The names that end up on the list are the most popular among students, most likely to play at the school, and go within the price range of what the university asks for.

Blake Berenz, the UB concert coordinator, along with the rest of the concert committee will officially announce the artist with the unveiling of an official banner, as well as some promotional giveaway.

Once the artist is revealed at the basketball game, limited edition merchandise will be available, such as CDs and T-shirts for the revealed artist.

“We have a third party agent who sends us a list of potential artists who he believes would be in our price range and may be available during the time of our spring concert,” Berenz said. “We then send him a list of our own composition with a variety of artists that we believe would be of interest to the students, to which he removes the unlikely ones and sends back the list.”

Berenz said this repeats until the UB has a substantial list to go from, and the committee then begins to narrow down the list for the survey.

While the UB concert committee was unable to give out the genre of the musician in protecting the element of surprise, members have put together a trivia contest for Eastern students.

On Feb. 1, committee members began posting spring concert posters to make students aware that the UB would be posting clues as to the identity of the artist through their social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The UB concert committee started uploading the first clue on Monday, and continued to do so up until the day of the reveal.

The first clue was an image of a $100 dollar bill burning on a billboard, and the second one had a ballot’s box and the White House.

Next to the ballot’s box were an equal sign and the phrase “old enough,” while the White House was also accompanied with an equal sign and the phrase “not old enough.”

Many of the students in the comment section guessed artists Fetty Wap and Twenty-One Pilots.

The students who guessed the artist correctly in the comment section will have their names entered in a drawing to win tickets to the show.

The winners will be randomly selected at the reveal.

“Acquiring an artist to perform for any event takes a lot of research, including things such as the concert survey, as well as our own personal research and negotiation,” Berenz said.

The UB concert committee also plans to announce where and when tickets will be sold during “The Big Reveal”.

“As always, we want to improve from past concerts, especially in regards to attendance,” Berenz said. “We plan to heavily advertise this concert event through mediums such as social media, newspapers, radio ads, word of mouth, posters, and other means to gain attention.”

 

Abbey Whittington can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].