The Yale College Council sent its annual Spring Fling survey to all undergraduates last week to gather student input and suggestions for the 2018 edition of the event.
YCC Spring Fling Committee is weighing a variety of factors as it makes decisions about which artists to book, and it hopes that the potential acts listed in this year’s survey will give students more realistic expectations for the official lineup than in previous years, according to committee Co-Chair Griffin Solot-Kehl ’19. The YCC was unable to comment on the status of its contact with artists, the official Spring Fling budget or specific results of the survey because doing so could potentially hinder the Spring Fling committee’s leverage in negotiations with potential acts.
“We just ask that you trust us and be patient because once you learn the lineup, I think you’re all going to love it,” Solot-Kehl said.
Committee Co-Chair Lucas Villalobos ’19 said that the committee will weigh several factors when selecting artists for the lineup, including how popular artists’ music is among Yale students, which committee members will judge based on how often they hear their music played on campus and whether artists are heavily requested in the annual survey. Villalobos also said the committee will take into account the quality of artists’ live acts.
“There are a lot of artists that are great recording artists, but then you see five or ten performances and if they can’t get a crowd going you have to realize that you may know like three of their songs, but you’re going to be there for an hour,” Villalobos said.
The committee will also take into account an artist or group’s likelihood to remain relevant through next spring, Villalobos said. In the past, he added, Spring Fling has featured artists before their rise to fame, like Macklemore in 2013.
Drawing bigger acts is not only a problem of money, the co-chairs said. Some acts, they explained, will not consider performing at colleges because they are usually smaller, less technologically equipped and less well attended than other venues.
In addition to planning the event’s musical lineup, the committee will also examine graduate students’ participation, Solot-Kehl said. Last year, Spring Fling had an attendance of approximately 7,000, which exceeds Yale’s undergraduate population by more than 1,500 people. The event draws the bulk of its funding from the student activities fee, which is only paid by undergraduates.
“All of the burden fell to undergraduates with the student activities fee, so that’s definitely something we’re looking at this year — how we can get funding in other ways, particularly since graduate students also attend,” said YCC President Matt Guido ’19.
Although she was displeased with last year’s headline act, JoJo, Jane Huang ’20 was excited to see some of the names on this year’s survey, such as Dua Lippa and Kehlani.
Leslie Schneider ’20 told the News that while her music tastes are relatively mainstream, the only name she recognized from the survey was Tyler the Creator.
JoJo, Tory Lanez, and Deorro performed at Spring Fling in 2017.
Natalie Wright | natalie.wright.nw287@yale.edu