Planning for Spring Weekend begins seven months in advance. Lancer Productions creates an online survey where we hope to gain as much feedback from Longwood students regarding their musical tastes as possible. We bring it to our agent the day before Oktoberfest and begin eliminating artists we cannot afford or those artists who have a bad track record.
If by chance we find an artist we think would be an excellent fit, we then have to have it approved by the police. Oftentimes our ideal artists will be cut due to unsafe artist followers, gang related affiliations or substance abuse. This often eliminates a good portion of our top choices.
Many believe we should stick to one large act to increase our budget and bring in a famous artist, but I want to clarify that this is not a possibility no matter how many of us in LP would dream of doing this. For one, Longwood’s campus cannot hold the mass crowds that would come from a large performance. Two, because this event is held outdoors, we would not be able to regulate who was coming to the performance and therefore many people would be traveling from out of state for a free concert paid for by Longwood students. Finally, we simply cannot afford to pay a mass amount of security or withstand the lack of safety that would come with this decision.
As the former president of LP, I am aware that there will always be critics. I understand it is irritating that we cannot always please everyone’s music tastes or bring in Beyoncé. If you think about the effort that goes into planning such a large event, I believe your opinions would change significantly. Lancer Productions is made up of students that truly want to please the student body with a fun weekend. We generally work for 17 hours straight on the Saturday of Spring Weekend, not to mention the countless hours spent planning and negotiating with acts, and to be recognized for hosting a “mildly successful” event is beyond frustrating.
I hope that all those that are ungrateful about Spring Weekend will please consider joining Lancer Productions. If you would like to make Spring Weekend wildly successful, help us make it possible.
“What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain.” - Maya Angeleou.
Submitted by Jessica Hamilton, Lancer Productions president