This semester, the director of concerts at USD has decided to throw a spring music festival, featuring local and national up-and-coming artists. This is a night of music and festivities put on by the students for the students. It will take place in the Jenny Craig Pavilion and right outside at Egan Plaza on April 26.
Currently Tom Nash, the director of concerts, is finalizing the line-up for the night. The bands that he has chosen to bid for are all local and national up-and-coming talents; genres include rock 'n' roll, country, reggae, hip-hop and electronic. He has also decided to get a DJ to play between sets and outside at the Egan plaza event.
Outside at the Egan plaza, Nash wants to feature venues of political organizations, food booths, artwork from USD students as well as a live art demonstration.
The venue for this event has a maximum capacity of $4,000. The ideal student participation at an event like this is one quarter of the student body, which means Nash hopes to get around 1,600 USD students to buy tickets. Ticket prices for USD students will be $10 and $25 for the general public- which is how AS plans to get some of their $60,000 back to go towards future concerts.
AS has allotted Nash $60,000 to work with for the event, which Nash stated was a "good hunk of money to pay for the talents." He plans to use this money wisely, hiring between 10-15 bands, each given a 30-60 minute window of playing time depending on the size and credibility of the band. He hopes to announce the full line-up right after Spring Break.
Nash has been in search of the "perfect" bands since the start of the semester. He has been receiving help from 10 volunteers who are musically in-the-know of the latest bands and trends in the industry.
He has also been taking student suggestions, and had a booth set up at the spring's Alcala Bazzar to get an idea of what students want. He has been in contact with different agencies nationally to try and get the "right type" of band allowed to play at an event.
Getting USD to approve of a band has been one of the larger problems Nash has been dealing with because he cannot get the administration to relax their policies. "Because USD is a Catholic university, it has been hard trying to convince them to let certain controversial bands play here, most of which they've denied."
One band that Nash has confirmed is "The New Archaic," which has one of USD's student, Tolan Shaw, and already seems to have acquired a good following here on campus. Be on the lookout for the announcement of the night's line-up coming soon.
