It is now the month of May and UCSD students are buzzing with anticipation of the tradition that is the Sun God Festival. The festival’s evening concert is a culmination of this year’s musical programming events and is the closing finale of one of the most spirited days of the academic year.
This year’s Sun God line-up, however, has provoked mixed opinions. My Chemical Romance, Cypress Hill and Talib Kweli are this year’s main acts, with smaller bands like No Use for a Name, boysetfire and Ozma featured in separate stages.
It is Kweli’s second appearance at UCSD, his first performance being at 2004’s WinterFest. In years past, UCSD has boasted of concerts featuring Warren G, Alien Ant Farm, Jurassic 5, the Pharcyde, Queens of the Stone Age, Busta Rhymes, Switchfoot and Bad Religion, among many others. Previous lineups have both impressed and disappointed UCSD’s student body, who’ve called some bands too “mainstream” and popular, and others too obscure to be of interest.
“Popular music and ‘the fad’ music is not exactly my cup of tea,” John Muir College freshman Dana Rueckert said. “But it surprises me that they can get someone that caliber.”
Rueckert, who did not attend FallFest or WinterFest this year, also noted that she was surprised to see the lack of publicity for the concerts.
Others said that the Sun God concert is not everything to the occasion.
“I’m more excited for the environment and the events of the day,” Sixth College sophomore Rebecca Cunningham said.
Whether students are dissatisfied or thrilled by festival lineups, some wonder why some bands are chosen and others disregarded. What determines which bands come to our campus? Is it based on the budget, or the bands that happen to be on tour? Moreover, is it based on an assessment of students’ musical preference — or the personal tastes of the programming office?
Enter A.S. Commissioner of Programming Eric Morris, who has been working in A.S. programming for the past four years. He and his programming team are the main force that provides the concerts students want and expect to see.
“To be honest, I’m not a big fan of most of the bands we’ve booked,” Morris said. “But when it comes to festivals, I clearly don’t care about what I want. I focus entirely on what I think the most students would be happy about.”
According to Morris, the bands and artists that come to UCSD depend mostly on their availability and earmarked funds in the programming budget. In addition, the 20 to 40 members of the programming office talk to students as much as they can to generate an idea of UCSD students’ musical tastes.
“It’s by no means something that one person makes a decision on,” Morris said. “It’s a great many people that come together to make these events happen.”
To further engage student participation in band lineups, Morris and his committee set up an e-mail account for students to suggest bands they would like to see and to voice any concerns of past concerts. It was hoped that this new approach would determine which groups students are pining to see — and which they could care less for.
This year, the committee received “hundreds and hundreds” of e-mails regarding student’s opinion on bands, according to Morris. He and his committee have also used Facebook to their advantage by clicking on the bands listed on students’ profiles to see which are most popular.
“[By this] you can kind of assess whether or not these bands will be something people will be excited about or not,” Morris said.
Yet, student attendance at this year’s festival concerts has been slightly lower than years past. During last year’s FallFest, when Jimmy Eat World was the headlining act, RIMAC was filled to capacity, about 4,800 students. The following season, 2,500 students attended WinterFest and approximately 15,000 came to Sun God, according to Festivals Co-Coordinator Brian Serocke. This year, FallFest was at full capacity again and 2,000 students attended WinterFest.
But with a student body of over 25,000, satisfying each student’s musical tastes — let alone a majority — is a difficult task.
“It’s one of the hardest jobs on campus,” Serocke said.
A.S. programming office member Christina Wong noted that many students are indifferent about the festival lineups, and become critical only when the lineups are announced.
“A lot of students are apathetic about who comes to campus, but it’s like that with a lot of things,” Wong said.
Programming concerts are funded by a percentage of the $21 A.S. student-activity fee. The A.S. Council spent about $70,000 and $60,000 for FallFest and WinterFest, respectively, reserving most of the budget for spring quarter’s finale, the Sun God Festival — a concert that will cost about $205,000 this year, according to Morris.
Morris, who recently returned from a tour with Yellowcard (featured at this year’s FallFest) and Mae, working as a tour manager, noted that such an abundance of concerts in one year is rare for universities such as those on the East Coast and other UC campuses.
“Students don’t really realize how lucky they are to have something like this,” Morris said.
This year, A.S. programming booked bands like Reggie and the Full Effect and the Violent Femmes to perform at Price Center for afternoon concerts called “nooners.” Programming also booked RJD2 and Aceyalone for free at Porter’s Pub.
But the office’s events are not limited to musical concerts.
Poet and novelist Maya Angelou graced RIMAC’s platform on May 8, an event that resulted from a collaboration between Commissioner of Diversity Affairs Candice Arnwine and A.S. programming.
Last year, A.S. programming booked comedian Dave Chappelle.
Rishi Shah, who was commisioner last year, made changes to the programming office and the responsibilities held within. Rather than devising specific duties for the commissioner and for the festivals coordinator, the duties were blurred to allow more collaboration between members.
While in office, Shah and his office booked Jimmy Eat World, KRS-One, Phantom Planet, Ludacris and the Killers throughout the course of the year.
As for the redundancy of Kweli’s second appearance, Morris said it was a “coincidental” occurrence.
“We needed somebody that would appeal to hip-hop fans that are into underground hip-hop,” Morris said. “It just so happened that it was affordable, but at the same time, he’s a very good artist.”
Last year, programming scanned student I.D. cards before allowing students to enter RIMAC Field for the Sun God concert. What ensued was a delay of long lines.
Serocke said that this approach was adopted to ensure that UCSD students were attending the concert. The scanning was also used as a tool to determine the demographics of concert-goers, to see if marketing strategies like postering are efficiently publicizing events to students, according to Serocke. He also noted that I.D. scanning last year was a “trial period,” and that the process has been more refined this year.
Morris’ main goal in his programming agenda, aside from getting ideal bands, was to allow the younger, more inexperienced members of the office to participate in the booking process, he said.
“[Morris] has been really encouraging of everyone on his staff and open to all of our ideas,” Assistant Programmer Di Lam stated in an e-mail. “I have definitely gained from this and I feel like he has really prepared me for what to expect next year.”
Lam, who will step up as programming commissioner next year, faces numerous challenges in her programming agenda, including the task of gauging student musical preferences and improving student attendance at festival concerts. She also hopes to execute “Thank Goodness It’s Friday,” an event that was initiated by Morris but put in hiatus until funds are available. TGIF will feature a beer garden and a live band performance on Sun God lawn two Fridays per quarter.
Whether students are satisfied by the bands or not, Sun God has retained its popularity.
“I know most people aren’t very happy about it, but I would go no matter what,” John Muir College junior Tiffany Ford said.
