University Union officials hosted a forum Thursday night in response to student reactions to this year’s Block Party artists, electronic artist Kaskade and indie-rock act Cold War Kids.

Students reacted passionately to the announcement, vocalizing their thoughts on Twitter and other social networking sites. On March 26, the night the lineup was announced, the hashtag #ThingsIdRatherDoThanGoToBlockParty was trending internationally on Twitter.

At the forum, which took place in the Life Sciences Complex, UU President Rob Dekker and Director of Concerts Kenny Consor addressed the planning that went into Block Party and the way in which UU functions. About 30 people were in attendance, but much of the audience consisted of UU members.

Consor gave an update on the status of artists performing at the concert. He said it was recently announced that indie-pop group Phantogram would perform as Block Party’s opening act.

After being introduced by Binta Jammeh, director of public relations for UU, Dekker cited his goals for the forum.

‘We want to educate you as much as possible on how university union operates, and then conversely we would like to know what the sentiment in the room is and how you view the ways University Union could improve,’ he said.

In an interview after the event, Dekker said one of his goals for the forum was to address misconceptions held by students, like the cost of the concert.

Dekker made reference to an SU meme that said, ‘Organize a multi-million dollar concert, get a hashtag complaining about it to trend worldwide.’ Dekker said saying the concert costs millions is inaccurate and that UU typically applies for funding of about $300,000 for its larger concerts.

UU functions as a registered student organization, which means it is not an organization that aims to make a profit, Dekker said. He said some raised concerns that the additional concert that took place in February, Rock the Dome, was not profitable. But UU is funded by the student activity fee, meaning the goal of UU’s events is not necessarily for profit.

‘The emphasis is on responsible spending of that allocation and entertaining the students,’ Dekker said. ‘Certainly, University Union is the most profitable student org. on campus. We make the most from box office returns. But that’s not to say that all of our events are profitable per se.’

This year, more than 3,000 responded to the survey UU sent out to all students via email, Consor said. The most popular genre selected this year was rap and hip-hop. The second most popular genre was electronic. Despite the No. 1 ranking of rap and hip-hop, UU did not choose to pursue this genre.

‘We’ve had a lot of hip-hop; we just had hip-hop in February, and we really wanted to diversify here, so we went from the top down to the second most popular genre, which was electronic music,’ Consor said.

Although some students have complained that previous Block Party concerts have had more prominent headliners like Drake, Fergie and Kanye West, Dekker said these artists are ‘a gamble’ and are often just becoming more well-known.

‘We got Drake before he was Drake in the same way that we got Kanye before he was Kanye,’ Dekker said.

Dekker said Kaskade was no different, and that he too was seen as an up-and-comer. He was ranked ‘America’s Best DJ of 2011’ by the DJ Times and will be performing at the Electric Daisy Carnival this summer in Las Vegas.

Consor said the process behind selecting a date for the concert and securing the talent can be lengthy. To select the date, UU officials must first consider all other campus activities, particularly athletic events. Next, they must find an artist that is available to perform on the given date and is also affordable.

Artists’ availability can be determined by whether they are touring at that time, where they will be located at the time of the concert, whether they are working in the studio and whether the artists perform on college campuses at all, Consor said.

Consor and Dekker both said the survey sent out to all students via email is where the planning for the concert begins.

‘The first step in our process is to look at the artists that were most popular on the survey,’ Consor said. ‘We’re really working from the top down, so who’s the most popular artist, if we’re going for that genre for a specific show and then are they available. If they’re not, we’ll go down to the second most popular artist and find out if they’re available.’

Although the floor was opened to questions at the end of the presentation, only two audience members spoke up. Dekker said he had hoped more students would attend and that UU had received more feedback from the students. But he said he felt the forum was successful because UU officials were able to discuss the issues they felt needed to be addressed and also correct some misconceptions.

Approximately 3,700 tickets have been sold thus far. Students may still purchase tickets at the Schine and Carrier Dome box offices. Tickets are available for purchase on Ticketmaster for those who are not students.

cffabris@syr.edu 

Published on April 5, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Casey: cffabris@syr.edu | @caseyfabris