Photo by Genevieve Humphreys
Last Friday, Chocolate Fest brought more to students than just platefuls of sweets. Members of Student Programming Board (SPB) also announced that the canceled Fall Welcome Week Concert will be replaced with a concert this spring.
SPB will announce the performer at Spotlight on March 27. According to a recent Instagram post, the concert will be on May 1; however, this long-anticipated update has not been without questions from students.
When a hundreds of students stood out on Prassel Lawn last August, they were awaiting the headliner of the Welcome Week Concert: Fetty Wap. However, the rapper never showed.
At the time, Shannon Twumasi, coordinator for Student Programs, said SPB’s budget was $90,000. Though Fetty Wap was not paid since he did not perform, the budget for a spring concert is less than that.
“There was about $30,000 spent on the production, food trucks, barricades, fencing, opening act, etc,” Twumasi wrote in an email to the Trinitonian. “For this concert, we are working with the $55,000 that was not spent due to Fetty Wap’s absence.”
That roughly $85,000 came from the student activity fee, allocated by Student Government Association (SGA) last April. The money was a portion of their total $175,942.92 annual budget and included $2,025 for security; $3,100 for opener Scratch and Bang; $1,998 for the limited edition T-shirts and $5,500 on the agent fee, according to the mid-year budget report they submitted to SGA this December.
After the concert cancellation, senior and SPB concert chair Dylan Welling explained to the Trinitonian that this instance was a first in recent years.
“When something like this happens, there comes a point where you start playing a political game,” Welling said. “You really just make the best decisions that you can that you think is best for everybody. We did what we had to when we needed to do it.”
Twumasi and members of SPB cannot share much information about the newly announced concert, in part because contracts between Fetty Wap and a potential new performer have not been settled. Twumasi did not confirm if the headliner will or will not be Fetty Wap due to the university’s contractual agreement with the rapper.
Twumasi said there is nothing to report regarding funding, but said she is working with external partners to resolve the situation.
