Jana Kramer, Tyler Braham and The Henningsens performed at Fall Fest this past Saturday, as I’m sure most of you know. Question is, did anyone on campus really know these artists? Some people have heard of Jana Kramer either from “One Tree Hill,” or because she is more popular than the other two artists, but she was still not someone everyone was really excited about. The other two however, I have never heard of before, and I am sure that is the same for most other students on campus.

Students pay $55,160 to attend this school and I’m just wondering why we continue to get artists that either no one has heard of before, or no one likes. The University of Rhode Island had Iggy Azalea perform this past Saturday, and students paid $35 a ticket. Although this concert was not free, they had an artist that most people know and wanted to hear perform. The least I have paid to attend a concert was $55, so if I were able to see a well-known artist at school with my friends for $35, I would go in a heartbeat.

I personally did not attend this year’s event, but I would have if I knew the artists. It just really astonishes me that with the amount of money we pay to attend school here, Student Programming Board cannot find artists that people actually want to hear. Although I do understand SPB has a budget and does their best in trying to find artists people will enjoy, I think that for next year they should try and find better artists and have students pay to get in.

One way they could get better artists is to get more feedback from students. SPB sends out a survey, asking students about what programming, artists or genres they would like to see. However, these surveys should be better advertised because many students do not know about them.If they did that, students wouldn’t be able to complain because they had a say in it, and I’m going to guess that most people would be willing to pay for the concert and we would also have good artists here too.

I understand that some people attend Fall Fest for reasons other than the music; it’s a time to do something different with friends on campus, there are food trucks, and even if you’re not a huge fan of the genre it can still be fun. I’m just saying that I think students, myself included, would be happier with well-known artists that we’d have to pay a little extra to see instead of a free concert with up-and- coming artists.

SPB does do a great job of putting the concert together; however it would be a better idea to get students’ opinion and figure out what the majority wants to hear before making any decisions and then causing students to be unhappy. All I know is next time there’s a concert on campus, I’d much prefer to not have to ask, “Does anyone know who that is?”