CAB announces choices for 2017 spring concert

More than 1,338 people have responded to a Campus Activities Board survey that was released last week asking students who they would like to have come perform at USD.

Doug Wagner, the adviser of CAB, said deciding who performs the concert is no easy task.

The process starts with the amount given to CAB by SGA. Once CAB has a budget they use multiple companies as middle men to come up with lists of artists who could perform for that amount. CAB then narrows a list from around 250-300 names down to 15 artists that the student body would like,
Wagner said.

“Then we try to push it out to the student body and say of these 15 that we know that we can afford, rank them first to 15 which one you think would do best,” he said. “We do it this way because we’ve kind of learned our lesson.”

Wagner said last year they struggled when they originally reached out to rapper, G-Eazy, to perform and he waited to reply until after he had released a new album and then wanted to charge more for the show. Wagner said this made it difficult for CAB to put together a new show.

“So we kind of  had to consult back to the original list we had and say, ‘well these guys got a lot of votes and these guys got a lot of votes — let’s see if we can come up with that,’ and that’s how we came up with the Sammy Adams, Jake Miller show that we did,”
he said.

This is why they decided to go with a ranking system this year according to Wagner.

“So when we ranked them we can now look at if so if number one doesn’t work out we can just go down the list,” he said.

He also said that while CAB is given a budget of $80,000 for the concert, there is more than just the cost of the artist to make the concert happen.

“There are really two costs: cost of the artist and the backline which is about half of what the artist costs,” he said. “We were given a budget of $80,000 so we are looking for someone who potentially costs $40,000-$50,000.”

Some of the names on this years list include A$AP Ferg, DNCE, All-American Rejects and Hunter Hayes, and this year the final artist will be
announced earlier.

First-year Adam Updike said he hopes the choice is T-Pain.

Jacob Nikolas, a sophomore, said he thinks there are many good options this year.

“I wouldn’t mind Niykee Heaton or All-American Rejects.,” Nikolas said. “I liked last year’s concert, too. But I know a lot of people want A$AP Ferg.”

Wagner said how CAB will announce who the final choice is will be “a little bit different”
this year.

“We’ll actually announce earlier this year at least that’s the plan. I don’t know a specific date yet but it will be earlier based on where we’re looking at having it,” Wagner said.