With the announcement of a strong Spring Fest line up, SA Entertainment has rediscovered the formula for Fest success. There has not been a year where both Fall and Spring Fests had acts that generated as much campus-wide buzz as Incubus this fall and Snoop Dogg, The Game and Jadakiss this spring. The decision to make each Fest a single genre saved the events from being concerts that try to reach everyone and ended up pleasing no one.
SA President Anthony Burgio said the cost of Snoop Dogg and Jadakiss together is less than any rock act of the past five years except one, and, even though rap acts are traditionally cheaper because they need less equipment, the star power Snoop Dogg carries brings with him makes his booking a coup for SA this year. Combine that with the booking of Incubus, and this year's Fests stack up favorably compared to any previous year's line-up.
The real success of this year's Fest series is that even with two big headlining acts (and solid openers, too), SA has been able to make sure the talent level at one fest balances with the other. Last year, SA spent most of its budget on Fall Fest, creating one giant multi-genre event of Godsmack, Nas and Li'l Kim, leaving Spring Fest with little budget and low-wattage star power in pop-rockers Hoobastank. Other years, SA fests have fallen victim to trying to do too much with too little - a sampling of several small-to-medium-time acts in many genres that left many attendees wanting for an auditory main course. SA made best use of its money by spending more on a main act and keeping a unified show out of each fest. Incubus, though definitely a high-profile act, did not attract all hip-hop fans just like Snoop Dogg, who has moved beyond music to be a pop-culture near-icon, won't attract all the people who went to see Incubus. In separating the show into two genres, SA makes the Fests as a whole appeal to everyone.
While there are many factors that affect the cost of concerts like the Fests, future E-boards should make note of how much of the campus was excited about Incubus, and how buzz is spreading about Snoop Dogg and The Game, another act potentially on the Spring Fest bill. Spending extravagantly to create a huge spectacle of many bands of many genres works at venues like Woodstock or Coachella, but smaller-scale, more coherent shows appeal to most students looking for a good, free concert. SA Entertainment needs to always remember that the talent at the Fests, not necessarily the Fests themselves, creates campus buzz.
