Although it's over six months away, Ivies is already generating buzz on campus. The Entertainment Board's (E-Board), recent survey—which received over 1,000 student responses—posed questions to determine what kind of concert Bowdoin students want for their Ivies Weekend.
"We're trying to get the best representative sample of what campus wants," said E-Board chair Ruiqi Li '13.
Survey questions pertained to size and number of acts, genres of music, and price for admission.
One of the E-Board's first tasks is to establish what kind of a concert the student body is hoping for: a show with one big-name act or several medium and smaller acts.
"A lot of students voted for multiple acts. There will be something for everyone," said Li.
According to Li, this spring's concert will be similar to those of previous years in terms of the number of acts. Roughly 75 percent of students voted to see a number of medium and small acts play instead of just one big, expensive performer.
As far as genres go, the results were evenly dispersed with the three most popular genres—indie rock, rap and R&B and dubstep—each receiving about 300 votes.
Particularly interesting is the number of votes for dubstep and house music. Ivies has never before featured a dubstep act and such a performance would require a completely different setup and production
"It would be a different Ivies experience," Li said. "It would have to be a different atmosphere...but we're always up for new things."
E-board openness to new ideas is evident in the survey questions about a potential charge for this year's concert. Although it has always been free for students in the past, the E-Board is considering charging a small fee in order generate more funds for performances.
Student responses to these questions were again difficult to analyze.
"Some people said they would not pay, some people said they would pay $5, and then all the way up to the top choice, which was $25," Li said.
However, even if students paid for admittance, the increased funding would not be substantial enough to have a great impact on the performances the E-Board could afford, said Li.
"Even though we have the biggest allocated budget on campus, it's really important to note that Ivies is two-thirds of our budget, and that's for one day."
The E-Board expects it to be even more difficult this year.
Whereas costs usually consist of $60,000 to $65,000 for artists and $25,000 to $30,000 for production, agents and other miscellaneous costs, rates of production will rise for this spring.
Because Moonlighting Production Services has what Li described as "a monopoly in the state of Maine," they are able to raise their prices without much consequence. This year, Moonlighting claims to have purchased all new equipment, which will make the production of Ivies more expensive than ever. Charging students for admission would only slightly aid the E-Board in meeting the higher costs of Ivies.
For these reasons, the E-Board is still unsure about how to approach the question of cost.