Springfest Statement Causes Confusion

From hip-hop confusion to bouncy-slide wage disputes, the Undergraduate Council has run into a series of snags as they plan their first Springfest with co-sponsorship by the Office of the President.

A misunderstanding about the exclusion of hip-hop choices from the council’s list of bands started after Sunday’s council meeting, when the comments of President Sujean S. Lee ’03 on the selection of the Springfest headlining band left some people thinking that President Lawrence H. Summers and his office had something against hip-hop.

“I think what Sujean seem to say in the meeting is that [President’s office] didn’t [like hip-hop], but immediately after she corrected herself,” said council member John F. Bash ’03.

Lee said the belief that Summers does not want a hip-hop act headlining Springfest is unfounded.

“President Summers has not been at all expressed any sentiments about the band nor is he involved in the selection process,” Lee said.

Lee said that this year Springfest planners wanted music suitable for all ages and so didn’t favor hip-hop. But they didn’t exclude hip-hop altogether. In fact, they included Jurassic 5 as their top choice.

Jurassic 5 was excluded only because they already booked and too expensive—$10,000 over the Springfest’s $15,000 budget for bands.

“We would have made a bid on them if they had been cheaper and available,” Lee said. “It wasn’t that we ruled out hip-hop.”

Brandon A. Gayle ’03, president of the Black Students’ Association, e-mailed Lee after the meeting because he was concerned about the claims that hip-hop was categorically excluded from Springfest.

“I would certainly hope that a single type of music wasn’t sectioned off,” Gayle said in an interview yesterday. “I e-mailed Sujean [Lee] and asked her and she said that wasn’t the case.”

Without any further evidence that President Summers singled out hip-hop Gayle said he believes Lee’s statement was misconstrued.

The remaining bands being considered as headliners are Semisonic, Nine Days, Vanessa Carlton, Ben Kweller and Verve Pipe.

The council hopes to make a bid on Semisonic, of “Closing Time” fame, by the end of this week, after settling on the amount of the bid with the president’s office, and obtaining approval from the Dean of the College’s Office.

“That [the bid] will probably be between $10,000 and $15,000,” Lee said.

Two years ago, the last time Springfest had a prominent band, the Council paid Big Bad Voodoo Daddy $15,000—a sum then considered a bargain compared to the $23,000 paid for Violent Femmes in 1999.

Council members expect the president’s office to supplement the current council-funded budget of $20,000 for all of Springfest, $5,884 of which has been set aside for a band.

“The president’s office has offered to fund a band,” said Jessica R. Stannard-Friel ’03, co-chair of the Campus Life Committee (CLC). “Hopefully there will be a band with recognizable name and a following with students.”

The exact amount that the president’s office will contribute to the total cost of Springfest still remains unclear.

“It’s tough to talk about numbers right now, especially since there is still a lot of open-ended activities on what the event is going to consist of,” said University spokesperson Christopher Ahearn.

The council and the president’s office also need to take into account the costs of building a stage in the Mac Quad that will be more expensive than last year’s, which was outfitted for a smaller band.

This year the council is choosing student bands with a Battle of the Bands event, tentatively scheduled for weekend after spring break. Stannard-Friel said the event will be good exposure for the bands and also promote Springfest.

Another small controversy broke out over the UC-General, the council’s e-mail list, when CLC Co-Chair Michael R. Blickstead ’05 posted an offer from Fun Ventures, the amusement company the council hired for Springfest, to pay students $100 to man their rides.

Council member Alexander B. Patterson ’03 wrote over the e-mail list that it was unfair that student ride operators should get paid while council members volunteered their time.

Blickstead and other council members responded that not only was this option impossible, but council representatives are elected to volunteer their services.

“Fun Ventures was going to have labor for the rides. They were either going to use Harvard students or look elsewhere,” Blickstead said.

Thirty people have been placed on a list to work for Fun Ventures on a first-come first-serve basis. These students along with some 50 council members will operate 15 rides geared to students and younger children. Rides for younger children will be in the Lowell House courtyard whereas the other rides will be on the Mac Quad.

Blickstead said the rides, extra food and better band for an expected 6,000 guests are all possible because of the additional funding provided by the president’s office.

“They’ve also contributed a large sum to the entire event, they are enhancing the rides, the food—basically the whole event to make it better for the student and the Harvard community in general,” he said.

—Staff writer Nalina Sombuntham can be reached at sombunth@fas.harvard.edu.