Timeflies performed for NDSU’s Spring Blast in 2014 at the Fargodome. 2016’s spring concert will feature Aaron Carter in the Memorial Union’s ballroom.
The Great Plains Ballroom will host Aaron Carter for an April 29 spring concert in a scaled-down venue and performance.
Robert Kringler, a former student government member, tweeted several statements Thursday regarding the upcoming concert, including “(Two) years ago we put $70,000 in a sustainable concert fund, we had 5,000 students in the Fargodome, now down to 900 students with Aaron Carter.”
Last November, student senate voted against funding Spring Blast concerts, putting sole responsibilities on Campus Attractions.
This move comes in the wake of 2014’s Timeflies concert and last year’s Scotty McCreery concert, both held at the Fargodome. Carter’s performance will be the union’s ballroom, which seats 900 for the students-only concert.
Spring Blast Week, which was held the same time as Greek Week, will no longer be hosted.
“General interest in having a Spring Blast declined,” said Nicole Borstad, student government’s executive commissioner of public relations, in an email written by her and Kalley Norr of Campus Attractions.
Two years ago, “The senate allocated $70,000 out of the reserve fund to create a spring concert fund,” Kringler said.
The money was to be used to get the first concert up and running. The revenue from the concert would go back into the fund to be used the next year.
Borstad and Norr wrote, “The first year we were able to raise enough fund through ticket sales that the money was used,” as they sold 2,692 tickets.
The following year they raised the ticket price and only sold 2,000 tickets and had to use $5,000 of the initial funding to “offset the cost of the show,” Borstad and Norr said.
The ticket prices have changed from $11 in 2014 to $15 in 2015 and now $5 this year.
With the starting budget for the concert being lower than it has been in the past, student government decided to host the concert on campus to help reduce the cost for students.
Borstad and Norr said student government has “heard a lot of positive feedback about the show,” and the Campus Attractions concert committee “works to identify” performers that will appeal to most students at NDSU.
“Campus Attractions is planning several events (during Spring Blast Week) that students can attend,” Borstad and Norr said.
The Spectrum attempted to contact Kim Bruemmer of Campus Attractions, but she was unavailable for comment.