Newcomb said that much of this was intentional to ease the stress on employees at the Collis information desk. She explained that whereas tickets for The Roots went on sale only one week before the concert, tickets for Third Eye Blind were deliberately put on sale two and a half weeks before.
"For The Roots, after the first day, ticket sales suddenly dropped," she said. "This change did what we wanted it to do: mellowed out the first day of sales."
Newcomb said that the difference in sales may also be due to the free tee-shirt incentive offered to the first 100 ticket buyers of The Roots tickets. There was no incentive to buy Third Eye Blind tickets early.
The Programming Board continued the ticket pre-sale instituted in the fall, allowing undergraduate advisors to pre-purchase the $20 tickets at a $2 discount per ticket for their residents. About 300 tickets were sold in Third Eye Blind's pre-sale, while 200 were sold for The Roots. This term, Programming Board extended the pre-sale option to any residential group, including Greek houses.
About one-quarter of Dartmouth's undergraduates voiced their opinion in Programming Board's spring concert poll to select Third Eye Blind as the concert's headliner. The survey asked students to rank the artists on a point scale from one to eight with eight points being the most favored. Of the 1,085 votes that were cast, Third Eye Blind received the most points with 5,646. Hot Hot Heat came in second and was 637 points behind Third Eye Blind.
The survey results showed that the only class that did not give Third Eye Blind the majority of its points was the Class of 2008, who gave R&B singer Robin Thicke 21 more points than Third Eye Blind.
Newcomb said that the Programming Board's primary intent was to give the student body as much power in the selection process as possible. She believed that the use of the survey accomplished this, but admitted that it also raised some problems.
"[It] worked, but it didn't work," she said. "People liked the choice, but we received some angry e-mails saying that we didn't pick good bands."
Newcomb said that the selection process for artists is difficult because the group must select artists who are within its price range, willing to play on college campuses and available on one specific date.
"We got our date [from the venue] the day before the survey went out, which was the last day of Winter term," Newcomb said. "Most bands had filled out their tours already."
Sebastian Restrepo '07, senior chair of the Programming Board, said that economic changes in the music industry are another factor that affects the selection of an artist. He explained that the Board is no longer able to get bands that it was able to in the past because bands now rely on concert tours for revenue.
"Our freshman spring, we had Maroon 5 with two top 10 hits," he said. "Now we're bringing a group that hasn't had one in a couple of years. The growth of iTunes has caused bands to no longer be able to rely on album sales."
Newcomb estimated the total cost of the concert to be just under $90,000. The Programming Board hopes that ticket sales will earn back about $53,000, with its budget sufficing the remaining cost. This term's concert will be held in Leveron Fieldhouse because of construction in the standard venue, Leede Arena, and this will add to the concert's cost because the space will require additional furnishings for the performance.
According to The Harvard Crimson, Third Eye Blind will be headlining Harvard's Yardfest, a free, outdoor concert for students. Newcomb said that Dartmouth has in the past done free concerts but could not do one at such a high cost.
"Every campus is set up differently," she said. "Harvard does not have a programming board - they have a concert council. They can put all their money into one show, and if they want to make it free, they can make it free."
Restrepo anticipates a great show, adding that Third Eye Blind is really excited about playing at Dartmouth.
"I really hope people come out and see it," he said. "I think it's going to be a good show, much better than being in Baker."
