• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

Rock band Rooney will play at the fourth annual Bruin Bash tonight at the Los Angeles Tennis Cent

Correction Appended

For the fourth year in a row, UCLA students can look forward to two well-known musical acts playing for free during Bruin Bash tonight at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. But just because they’re playing for free doesn’t mean they came easy. Campus Events and Cultural Affairs, the two student commissions responsible for booking the acts, will present L.A. pop-rockers Rooney and rapper Xzibit. The two student groups secured their artists only in the last few weeks, abnormally late for the Bruin Bash concert. The lateness was not caused by lack of effort on the part of the organizers, however. “I’ve been working on artists since April,” said Hawkins, who is also last year’s Cultural Affairs commissioner. “It goes from having an artist who’s going to do it to them saying they can’t do it. We’ve had times where we thought we were getting Justin Timberlake for cheap, then his manager cancels the next day.” The difficulties encountered by Campus Events and the Cultural Affairs Commission point not to student laziness or procrastination, but rather to broader changes in how musicians are promoted and where they seek exposure. “(Mainstream artists) are not playing to colleges as much as they used to because the entertainment industry has become saturated,” Hawkins said. “There are so many more opportunities to get promotions or draw a crowd. Like iTunes – that’s promotion right there before the album even hits. They don’t need (to see) that young demographic anymore because they’re already reaching it before actually coming to a university.” The reduced reliance on college crowds for publicity means that universities must put up more money than ever to get big-name artists – money that an already cash-strapped public institution such as UCLA might not necessarily be able to front. “Bands that are popular ask for extraordinary amounts of money,” said Zorina Chen, special events director for Campus Events. “(The challenge was) finding the perfect balance of a band that was big enough to enjoy but that wouldn’t use all of our funds. We wanted a band that was young, upbeat and that people had heard of. Rooney is a pretty well-known band for our age group.” Ravi Dehar, the Campus Events commissioner, said that the two commissions even considered pooling their financial resources in order to attract a single more well-known act, but ultimately decided against it. “We’ve toyed with the idea of combining our budgets and booking one artist, but that artist may only play for the same amount of time as one of the two artists otherwise,” Dehar said. Additionally, part of the overall purpose of the event is for the commissions to work together in order to give students a good time. “Last year, we were able to help each other and make sure the show’s artists complemented each other. We’ve done a good job in making sure that continued this year,” Hawkins said. “Both commissions need each other in terms of putting on the event. When you see the artists we submit, they’re different because we try to cover the spectrum (of taste) of the university as much as possible.” According to Hawkins, increased funds must come from somewhere if UCLA is to continue hosting a high-quality, free event featuring popular artists with wide-ranging appeal. He alluded to Black Sunday, the fraternity-hosted block party that fell victim to overcrowding and was replaced by the Bruin Bash concert in 2003, as an example of why the commissions need more resources. “What we’re going to have to do is ride on the university harder to get more support,” Hawkins said. “This event is obviously meant to get students off the streets. If (the university) wants to get the people off the streets, they need to financially support it. I would hope we can get some corporate sponsorship also. ... We’re offering $15,000 or $20,000 to an artist. USC is offering $50,000 or $100,000.” Chen, who handled sponsorship for Bruin Bash, agreed that having more financial support would make booking acts easier, but was wary of opening the event up too much to corporate aid. “I think there would be pros and cons to having more money,” Chen said. “We could get bigger bands, but we don’t want to sell out and exploit the students. If you have a company that gives you a lot of money, they think they can have control over the event.” It may have been more of a struggle than ever for Campus Events and the Cultural Affairs Commission to line up artists this year, but Dehar, for one, was able to bring some good news out of the dead ends. “We came in contact with a lot of other bands we wanted to play but who couldn’t, so now we have a lot of concerts lined up that are bigger names than normal because we were able to find them earlier,” he said. And despite the difficulties involved in getting the concert bill together, organizers are still excited for an event where students get to enjoy big-name entertainment at a no-name price. “I want students to say, ‘We feel good we come to UCLA,’” said Hawkins. “There’s this whole week of different events happening, especially for new students and transfer students. The feeling of ‘Oh, I’m nervous’ changes when you’re in a comfort zone and you’re entertained.”