In response to student demand for up-tempo electronic artists, the Brown Concert Agency announced a Spring Weekend lineup heavy on dance music today. Providence brass band What Cheer? Brigade and understated electronic duo Sepalcure will join Childish Gambino at the Friday performance April 20, while new wave synth outfit Twin Shadow and hip-hop golden child Cam'ron will open for the Glitch Mob Saturday.
"I know we always say this, but this year more than ever we were just trying to make students happy," said BCA Co-Chair Gillian Brassil '12. "All the feedback we were hearing from students was, 'We're just down to dance.'''
Childish Gambino was named one of seven acts students most wanted to see in a January poll conducted by BCA and the Undergraduate Council of Students. Because he is performing at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival the same weekend, many believed he would be unable to perform at Spring Weekend. He is still scheduled to perform at Coachella Sunday.
Three of the acts in the lineup - Sepalcure, Twin Shadow and the Glitch Mob - perform electronic music, reflecting "tons of student demand for a big, well-known DJ," Brassil said.
But such DJs "can pull hundreds of thousands of dollars performing at clubs in Europe," Brassil said. BCA's budget was slashed by 17 percent this year from $180,000 to $150,000.
Brassil said the budget cut had unintended positive consequences. "There's a whole range of artists we couldn't even look at, who, if we'd had $20,000 to $30,000, more would have been real possibilities," she said. "But this forced us to look for really solid main acts, rather than go after potentially alienating big names."
As always, timing posed problems for the concert agency, which is forced to hold Spring Weekend on the same weekend as Coachella due to the proximity of spring break, final exams and Passover.
"(Coachella's) lineup is always amazing, but it almost became funny how many times we were talking to an artist and they were like, 'Oh, yeah, I'm going to be at Coachella,'" Brassil said. They were able to book Childish Gambino to play Friday night only because he is scheduled to perform at Coachella Sunday.
The concert agency is also taking extra precautions this year to ensure that the shows are held outdoors on the Green if at all possible. Concerns about lightning prevent them from erecting large tents, but agency members have found other solutions to the problem of inclement weather.
"We're literally ordering 6,000 plastic ponchos," Brassil said.
One major difference between this year and last year's lineups is the absence of a student band. Since the agency now organizes Speakeasy Sessions - small concerts featuring student bands - it did not feel the need to feature a student group at Spring Weekend this year, said BCA Co-Chair Sandy Ryza '12.
The agency is also experimenting with making its decision process more transparent to students who have had "no institutionalized way to respond to the lineup" in the past, Ryza said. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, members of BCA will man a table on the Green to respond to student comments about the lineup and other questions about Spring Weekend.
"We're trying to be more human ... more transparent, more accessible," said Public Relations Chair Emma Ramadan '13. "The goal is to have people understand what's behind the lineup."
BCA will release 1,500 tickets for each concert on April 4 and 5 on the Brown Student Agencies website. Weather permitting, both concerts will be held on the Green, and BCA will sell 2,500 more tickets either when the first batch sells out or on April 10, whichever comes first.
