T-Pain, the Far East Movement and MisterWives will perform at this year’s Green Key concert, Programming Board president Chelsea Mandel ’15 confirmed yesterday.
Lupe Fiasco and Aer performed at the event last year, while A$AP Rocky, Shaggy and RSNY performed in 2013.
Each year Programming Board distributes an electronic survey to campus where students can vote on their preferences for artists, which is one of a number of factors considered when selecting artists, Programming Board concert chair Leif Harder ’15 wrote in an email. He noted that in this year’s survey, the number of votes between the top two artists were only one to two percentage points apart.
Prior to selecting the performer line-up, the Programming Board also considers other factors, including artist affordability, availability, name recognition, the experiences other schools have had with the artists and how well-received the artist would be at Dartmouth, Harder wrote.
He wrote that Programming Board needs to be particularly budget-conscious because it chooses not to charge for concert tickets, which is a norm at other schools.
Brown University’s Concert Agency holds a similar event known as Spring Weekend that requires students to purchase tickets. This year, Brown’s Concert Agency contracted Waka Flocka Flame, Modest Mouse, Pusha T and Yeasayer. Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania both charged students for their spring concerts, which featured Big Sean and Kesha, respectively.
Harder wrote that given that Programming Board is proud of the line-up it was able to schedule this year, particularly because it is able to provide a free concert for students.
Harder also said that while a large portion of the Programming Board’s annual budget is spent on the Green Key concert, the organization aims to spend portions of its budget to provide a variety of shows throughout the year. He added that of the budget for the Green Key concert, nearly 30 to 35 percent goes toward production costs, security and facility charges.
T-Pain has won two Grammy Awards and has been featured in over 50 chart-topping singles. He is performing at several other colleges for their spring shows this year, including Vanderbilt University, Duke University and Middlebury College.
Nick Thyr ’17 said that he has heard positive reviews about MisterWives from other students and is excited for Green Key.
“I think T-Pain’s going to be great — he’s always seemed on the sillier side to me but, you know, it’s Green Key, have some fun,” he said.
Maya Wilcher ’16 said she was not thrilled when she was informed that T-Pain was booked for this year’s concert.
“I kind of thought it was going to be Walk the Moon. I don’t really know anything T-Pain sings,” she said.
Harder said MisterWives has recently been growing in popularity and that Programming Board is excited about the variety of musical sounds the band will bring to the concert.
MisterWives was scheduled to perform at last fall’s Fallapalooza, which was also coordinated by the Programming Board, but was unable to perform due to the lead singer’s illness.
“Fortunately, MisterWives has a strong relationship with Dartmouth and enjoys performing here, and therefore promised to come back and perform for campus in the spring,” he wrote.
Phil Son ’16 said that he first saw MisterWives when they performed last spring.
“I didn’t know them, but they were animated and brought a lot of energy so I’m looking forward to that,” Son said.
Several students interviewed expressed a lack of familiarity with the Far East Movement.
The concert kicks off with a student band the Euphemisms, followed by MisterWives, then the Far East Movement before closing with T-Pain.
The concert will be held on Gold Coast lawn on Friday, May 15 at 6 p.m.
