Charles Desrochers / Asst. Lifestyles Editor
There is a method behind the madness of Central Activities Network’s decision of having five smaller bands instead the big name for Spring Weekend.
CAN representatives Emily Jerrard and Chris Leahy explained that CAN is attempting to give Spring Week a festival feeling as apposed to one big name.
Leahy, who organized the bands for Spring Week, says CAN was working with a budget of $50,000. Last year CCSU’s Spring Week bands were a part of a bundled concert promoted by Crocs Footwear called Crocs 360. This year the same kind of “sponsored concert” was not available.
The advantage of having a bundled concert is that; lighting, sound and talent are all included in the same lump sum. With this year though, CAN was responsible for acquiring the production equipment separate from the bands, which Leahy said added 20 percent to the bands total.
CAN also had a two week window in which they knew they wanted the concert to occur. When looking for bands in the area that fit the budget CAN had difficulty finding the right balance between schedule and budget.
Working with $50,000 and a limited pool of talent, CAN set out to find what they thought CCSU would enjoy.
“We didn’t have a lot of input from the students this year. Not a lot of students came so we tried to reach out there and unfortunately no one really offered any suggestions,” Leahy said. “It was kind of tough to decide what we thought was best for the campus as well as comedians. We wanted to combine some genres that you don’t normally see on campus.”
“We looked at last year’s headline concert and we saw there was a good turn out for the Reel Big Fish and there was actually a real big culture around that style, that ska, that punk, that culture setting,” Leahy said.
Reel Big Fish headlined last year’s Spring Weekend as the replacement for the original band, One Republic.
“A whole lot of people had mentioned to me this band called Streetlight Manifesto, so we looked it up online and we saw that they were going on the Warped Tour this summer and we thought that, you know, it would be a pretty good attraction,” Leahy said.
CAN is also featuring comedian D.L. Hughley as part of the Week’s festivities on Monday, April 20, as well as rides and booths on the Saturday of the concert. The show itself will include five bands as well as a stage for local bands and be from noon until 6 p.m. so that students may also have time enjoy a night out.
Not many other colleges in the area have gone for the a lot of a little approach before, but Leahy, Jerrard, and the rest of CAN just say, “A lot of state schools take that rap and hip hop route – we wanted to try something different. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.”
