Construction in the University Union plaza has caused Associated Students Inc. to move the UU hour concert series to the Via Carta Mall near Campus Market, cut back on the number of bands playing per quarter and create a new music event called Fan Fest before home football games.
Michelle Broom, ASI public relations and marketing coordinator, said that the purpose of the UU hour concert series, now known as Music in the Market, is to provide students with free entertainment. She explains that the UU hour began as a class-free, hour-long break every Thursday from 11 a.m. to noon. Students would gather in the plaza to listen to the free entertainment, usually a local band, brought to them by ASI and paid for through student fees.
“It’s really just a longstanding tradition that ASI has done,” she said. “It’s free entertainment during the day for the students.
Because of the location change from the UU Plaza to the Via Carta Mall, fewer concerts will be held this year than in previous years, despite ASI having a full Music in the Market budget of $24,000. Last year, about 10 concerts were scheduled per quarter. Between the two Music in the Market concerts and the four Fan Fest concerts, only six concerts are scheduled this quarter. The added expense of having the concerts at different locations accounts for the fewer concerts being held this year, Missi Bullock, ASI program coordinator, said.
“It’s more difficult to program when it’s farther away for us, from our base (in the Epicenter),” Bullock said. “It’s also more cost prohibitive for us to bring the whole thing somewhere else.”
The location of the Music in the Market was another reason the concert series was split into two separate musical events, the UU hour concert series featuring local band Still Time and singer/songwriter Jason Reeves, and Fan Fest. After sending out a group to look at possible venues for the concerts, Bullock and her team ultimately decided that Via Carta Mall, an area by Campus Market, would best replace the plaza.
“A big thing we considered was an impact to classes in different areas,” she said. “So that’s what we looked at when we scouted locations. Via Carta Mall was deemed as the most ideal space for that to happen with the least impact to classes.” On both concert dates this quarter, the surrounding buildings, including the Agricultural Sciences Building and the Agriculture Engineering Shop, have no scheduled lectures from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Because the Via Carta Mall does not have a permanent stage like the plaza, ASI plans to rent the Ernie Ball Mobile Stage, a large semi-truck that folds out on one of the sides to create a stage inside the truck. The Ernie Ball Mobile Stage, one of two truck stages designed and created by Ernie Ball, Inc., has been used at several music festivals, including the Vans Warped Tour and the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands. This mobile stage will roll into the Via Carta Mall to provide a platform for the band.
The extra cost to bring in the Ernie Ball stage accounts for ASI scheduling six concerts instead of the usual 10.
In addition to the cost of the Music in the Market budget is the new Fan Fest concert series, which will be held before Cal Poly’s four scheduled home football games. It will feature a small festival-like concert with two live bands, inflatables and food vendors. This new free event will take place on Chase Hall lawn along College Avenue at 3 p.m. on Oct. 3, 17 and 24 and on Nov. 14.
Broom and Bullock say that attendance has been steady over the last couple of years, but they did notice a slight decrease in the turnout of students last year. They link the small decline in student attendance to the increase of on-campus student residents. Instead of sticking around the UU between classes, students may go back to their dorms to study, Bullock said. Although Broom and Bullocks have high hopes for the new location, students have mixed reactions about the concert change.
Civil engineering sophomore Michael Nilsen, an avid UU concert enthusiast, says that he probably won’t go, since the concerts are not held in the middle of campus anymore.
Business sophomore Maddie Foster thinks that the change will not affect the number of students attending concerts.
“I think the response to the location of the concerts will be the same as last year because it is a free concert,” she said. “No matter where it is on campus, I’m sure students will flock there.”
Despite some students’ concerns for the new concert series venue along Via Carta Mall, Bullock hopes for a positive turnout.
“We’re hoping more students (will go),” she said. “It’s a niche that’s been there that we haven’t served, so to speak. I think that the students are yearning for something new and different.”