Springfest 06': Who's it gonna be?

Talk of this year’s UVM Springfest is upon us. The annual concert was created in part to combat the 420 festival on April 20th which our school became famous for. While historically a day when thousands would pack the green by the library and raise their joints and middle fingers and wave them at the cops, it recently has fallen into obscurity due to a beefed up police presence. One of President Fogel’s top priorities has been to reduce the party image of the school in order to restore the “public ivy” image we once had. The 420 festival was one of the most visible examples of the party atmosphere at UVM and thus something he looked to stomp out as soon as he could. Fogel’s response was to not only increase police presence but to also throw large amounts of cash from his discretionary funds at a Springfest event that would be fun for the students and easily controlled by the administration.

The Springfest of 2004 brought us the The Roots and Blackalicious, two hip-hop bands. While last year the school threw down around $85,000 to bring Cake and Particle. Over the course of the last three years the school has hosted such other large acts as Jurassic Five, Common, George Clinton, String Cheese Incident (Springfest ’03), and the Roots, again. The primary complaint from students has been that most big acts that come have been hip-hop, which may not draw everyone in.

While the administration tries to increase UVM's image as an institution of strong academics they are pushing other areas as well. The jump of the hockey team to Hockey East as well as the recent success of both the basketball and hockey teams has helped the school by leaps and bounds. Coming from LSU, a school very big on sports, Fogel understands the benefits that successful athletic teams can have for a school. A school's overall image is something looked at by agents when deciding if they want to book one of their acts for a show at a certain college. I personally doubt that the bands we’ve had in the past have done a lot to support larger acts coming, primarily because many of the bands that we've had play a lot of college shows. Yet, I imagine the money we’re waving around will get their attention. Rumor has it that we’re spending more than ever before to bring a big act to Burlington.

In a showing of a desire for student input this year the UVM Bored page has put up a survey that allows students to choose their top three choices out of fifteen major acts. The possible choices span many genres and most are very well known bands. I applaud this move but wonder how feasible it would be to get many of the bands. I can only hope that all the bands listed are at least remotely possible. I encourage all of you out in blogland to give your input so that the school can bring in someone we will all like this year.