Many St. Bonaventure students wait anxiously to see what band or artist is chosen to perform on campus for the annual Spring Concert.
When the Campus Activities Board (CAB) announced this year’s performers Breathe Carolina and The Ready Set, some students expressed their disappointment in the choices. Some started to point fingers and blame others for the poor selection. Breathe Carolina and The Ready Set are still up-and-coming artists and, while talented, many people had never heard of either of the acts.
Some students demanded bigger and more popular bands come and perform instead of newer bands not many people have heard of. A lot of the blame has fallen on CAB.
But can CAB really be blamed for the artists chosen? No.
Every club or group has a budget, and sometimes the money provided just isn’t as much as one would like.
CAB’s budget just isn’t conducive to paying for a band on a world tour to come perform at Bonaventure. They receive one budget at the beginning of the year and then must split that up between the other activities that are being planned, said Stephen Kuchera, the assistant director for activities, recreation and leadership in an email.
Seeing as CAB has done so much for students this year, getting upset over the music choices is kind of selfish. We need to keep in mind all the other activities CAB sets up for the students. Due to the success of our athletics this year, CAB helped set up the bus trips to watch the men’s and women’s basketball teams play at the NCAA tournaments. Add that on top of all the other services CAB provides for the students, such as the discount movie tickets and bingo nights that include fantastic prizes, and imagine how pricey that could get.
Money doesn’t grow on trees.
Why are we complaining about two talented artists coming to play here? Students should be thankful CAB was able to get bands at all instead of canceling the concert.
If students want bigger and more well known artists to come and play, they need to realize the ticket prices will skyrocket. Going to see a world-famous band anywhere else would cost a lot of money. That won’t change because the concert is being held on a college campus.
Thursday’s concert was scheduled to be in the Reilly Center, but it was moved to The Rathskeller due to low ticket sales, according to the same email.
Hopefully next year, CAB will be able to find a musical group more people will be satisfied with, but, either way, students need to remember it isn’t CAB’s fault. It can only do so much with the budget provided for it.
This editorial represents the opinion of The Bona Venture staff.
