The Bowdoin Entertainment Board (E-Board) announced today via their Facebook page that this year’s fall concert headliner will be LA Riots, a DJ out of Los Angeles. The concert will take place next Saturday night, November 2, in Smith Union.
“In the past, overall, the concert has been pretty big,” said E-Board member David Vasquez ’14. “One of the biggest turnouts we had was when White Panda came and performed. The Union was packed, the stage almost fell apart...the atmosphere was really fun.”
With regard to this year’s concert, Vasquez said that he thinks there will definitely be a large turnout, especially since it is on Halloween weekend.
While Vasquez was not able to disclose what E-Board’s budget was like for the concert, he did discuss how the members went about choosing which artist will perform. The board consists of fifteen people and they look at what artists are out there and who is popular.
“We mainly consider who the campus would enjoy having,” said Vasqeuz. Once they have that discussion, the members put in a bid for what artist they think the students on campus would want the most. This year, the members chose LA Riots.
“We thought [he] could put on the best Halloween show given our limited budget,” said Vasquez. “In the past, similar artists like White Panda and Clockwork have put on really fun shows that have had a great turnout. Given that it’s Halloween weekend, we hope people will come in costume and have a wild night out.”
Reactions to the act have been positive.
“We’re already hearing a lot of people on campus talking about the show,” said Vasquez. “Since our budget isn’t very large for the fall show, we don’t expect everyone to have heard of the artist.” He does note, however, that the E-Board Facebook page has links to articles and songs by the artist.
“LA Riots is definitely doing cool things and we expect [him] to become more and more popular. It looks like people are definitely excited for the concert and we think having it on Halloween weekend will definitely be an advantage,” he said.
This year, the fall concert is on the Saturday of Halloween weekend; that night is typically the Halloween Party at Pine Street Apartments known as Pinefest. However, Vasquez said that E-Board was unconcerned about the overlap.
“It is something we have talked about,” he said. “But this year for the fall concert we are pushing the idea of it being a Halloween themed event. We’re naming the event ‘Halloweenfest.’ We want this to be seen as one of the big Halloween events on campus for the weekend. Everyone should definitely come out.”
Natalie Reid ’17 said she was unfamiliar with the DJ but would be willing to check him out.
“If I listen to the music and like it, maybe I’d go to the concert,” she said.
Many students said that they were more likely to go to Pinefest.
“That was my favorite party of the year last year. People from all grade levels were there and it was a lot of fun,” said Mark Pizzi ’16.
Pine Street resident Alden Drake ’15 said that Pinefest will likely still go on, and that it’s unfortunate that there’s another event going on that night.
“I think that people will probably show up to both events, but Pinefest is usually the first event that comes up,” she said. “Everyone that isn’t a freshman thinks about Pinefest for Halloween.”
Vasquez also threw in a quick word on Ivies, saying that a second, narrower concert interest survey was on the way.