It may only be December, but excitement for the annual Ivies Concert is already catching on. The anticipation has only grown over the past week as the Entertainment Board (E-Board) sent out a survey regarding the concert to the student body.
As of Thursday night, 814 students had responded to the survey.
The E-Board was pleased with the responses it received.
"I was very happy with how much thoughtful feedback many respondents gave to our free-response questions," said E-Board Co-Chair Morgan Andersen '12. "This feedback is instrumental in our decision-making process when we narrow down choices and start making bids, so I was glad to see we have so much material to work with."
The survey was split into three parts: which lesser known acts to bring, which big name performers to bid for, and how the concert should be structured. The survey also asked whether the concert be a longer festival or a 45-minute performance by a single famous act.
The E-Board releases the Ivies survey in the fall so it can use the results to guide the concert planning process.
"Although we're still sorting out the responses, I can say with certainty that the student body broadly and diversely disagrees about the answers to these questions, and it is the E-Board's challenge to make sense of the data," said Student Activities Program Activities Megan Brunmier '08.
Students were not only split on the format of the concert, but also what types of acts the school should be trying to attract.
"I only knew K'Naan and Janelle Monae, I just didn't know who the other people were," said Zalika May '13 of the list of smaller acts. "I wish there were more groups from another genre, or maybe they should send out e-mails about who the people are because I just had no clue."
Ginger Leone '11 said she felt that a different genre held the answer: "I really like country music, which I know most of the student population probably doesn't, but I would love to see like Sugarland...or Kenny Chesney—that would be awesome."
Another issue for this year's edition of the concert is how to improve upon last year's showing, which Andersen described as "one of the most fun and successful the College has had in recent years." Yet, according to Brunmier, improving on last year will be extremely difficult.
"There is a tremendous amount of work associated with putting on a successful spring show," she said. "From the outset, planning for the show is complicated; the E-Board has to define what success is. At first glance, it seems it would be easy to decide when Ivies has been successful and when it hasn't...however, behind the scenes there are thousands of little variables and decisions that come into play that the E-Board spends much of the year navigating so that the day of the concert is, in fact, successful."
By the end of next week, the E-Board will finalize a prospective lineup and begin bidding for artists.
"The bidding process will formally begin within the next week and a half, as soon as we settle on a definitive ranked list of preferences. Then it will continue until we have the acts confirmed for the show. That could likely go on for several months. We will probably end up having to send out several rounds of bids, due to artists' tour schedules and other constraints," said Andersen.
No matter the outcome of the bidding process, some students look forward to Ivies as a chance to spend time with their friends.
Danielle Drew '12 said she did not particularly care about the music.
"I love hanging out on the Quad in the sun with my friends...the music, I think its bad, but whatever, its cool, we're out here having fun," she said.