This year, Longwood University will be hosting bands Bowling for Soup, Cheat Codes and Small Pools as entertainment during the University’s annual Spring Weekend celebration. Many students were excited to hear that Bowling for Soup, which produced the iconic 2000s hits “1985” and “Stacy’s Mom,” would be headlining.
“I’ve been listening to them since middle school,” said sophomore Nathan Everson. “So I’m really excited to see them here, live.”
Many people don’t realize how much work goes into the development of the Spring Weekend entertainment. No student understands this more fully than Lancer Productions (LP) President and senior Rachel Hirsch. As president, Hirsch oversees and implements much of the planning that brings Spring Weekend concerts to fruition.
“Some people come up and are like, ‘hey, you should get this band’ like (two weeks before) or something like that,” Hirsch said, laughing but with a tone of exasperation. “It takes a lot of planning … they don’t understand.”
Hirsch explained planning for Spring Weekend starts a week before Oktoberfest - a full 25 weeks before the event itself.
As the first step to securing the Spring Weekend entertainment, Lancer Productions sends an email or survey out to the student body “(to) get a better understanding of who the students want to see (or) what genre is wanted,” Hirsch said. LP mainly gets specific bands requested on this survey, leading them to step two.
“We made a whole giant list of who people wanted to see,” Hirsch said. The LP staff looks into all of the bands with a certain budget in mind.
“Some people fall within the budget and we have to rule some people out, like Beyoncé,” Hirsch said laughing. “(Beyoncé’s) not really in the budget that we’re given.”
Then, LP gives the names of the more realistic bands to an agent that acts on LP’s behalf to reach out to the artists. They also contact the Longwood University Police Department to make sure security for the bands is possible.
Hirsch added, “We also check if the artist has gang related activity or drug use. (If so,) we can’t have them on campus.” After all of this, LP checks if the bands are even available on the day of the concert. If they are, Hirsch says, “we put a bid in on them.”
LP dealt with what Hirsch called a “small hiccup,” when Jamie Lynn Spears had to cancel her performance due to a scheduling conflict. LP went back to the drawing board, looking again at the list of bands people had requested and calculating who the money could be put toward. LP decided on Small Pools, an indie pop band, as well as Josh Vietti, a hip hop violinist.
The next step, LP faces comes during spring weekend itself. The staff arrives to the concert site at around 7 a.m. and make sure the artists arrive on time.
They are in charge of hospitality for the bands as well, according to Hirsch. Hirsch said they make sure the artists are comfortable and have everything they need, even if that means making multiple trips to Walmart for them.
Last year, Hirsch said she was part of security for the band, 3OH!3. LP also had to deal with people trying to get into the student union, even though the area was blocked off. There was even an incident involving urination in the student union stairwell.
“It’s a long day just making sure all bases are covered,” Hirsch said.
Hirsch said all of the work does have its benefits.
“Everyone in LP gets to meet (with the bands), talk to them and take pictures with them. It’s kind of like the perks of working a 16-hour day,” Hirsch said. Hirsch said she’s most excited for Bowling for Soup, who she used to listen to on Radio Disney growing up.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Hirsch said. “It’s like, ‘oh yeah, I listened to you when I was twelve, and I’m talking to you right now.’”
This makes everything worth it, even though “people don’t how much work and stress goes into this,” Hirsch said. The biggest part of LP’s job for spring weekend is “making sure everyone has fun in a safe way.” Hirsch explained that all this effort is for the students.
“We want what they want,” she said. “(We want them) to have a fun, positive experience.”
This photo was taken at last year's Spring Weekend celebration.
