On Sept. 19, the Fairfield University Student Association announced Bingo Players as the main attraction for its Fall Concert.
Bassjackers will open for Bingo Players at the Oct. 19 concert. Tickets are $25 for students and $40 for guests. A new addition this year is that admission is 18 and over for guests.
Inevitably, reactions were split among the students who heard the announcement at FUSA Palooza, the student organization’s concert reveal event.
“I don’t think I’m gonna go,” Myles Golymbieski-Rey ’16 said. “I have no idea who they are.”
On the other hand, others remain optimistic that the concert will be a good time. “No matter who it is, it’s always gonna be fun, because you’re going out with people and having fun with friends. That’s what it’s really all about,” Matt Parenti ’17 said. “I mean, [FUSA] must have put a lot of time and research into it.”
[POLL: Thoughts on the Fall Concert performers?]
For FUSA to organize and book the concert, it had to consider many factors. First the concert organizers, Katie Donahue ‘15 and Andrea Butler ’15, surveyed the students through email about their favorite genres. The last conducted survey resulted in techno music being a top pick with rap music as the second choice. Then FUSA would talk to an agent and start booking.
“It’s a difficult process that people don’t really realize,” Donahue said. “If somebody says they’re in Europe or out West, which is what we came across a lot, you have to start from square one. We probably went through eight to ten artists.”
FUSA started the search in May; the Bingo Players were booked around mid-August and the Bassjackers a week before school started.
The given budget of $35,000 also factors into the search for artists.
“It’s not just calling up the artist saying, ‘Hey, can we get you?’” FUSA President Alex Long ’14 said. “We have to be really knowledgeable in how we spend our budget ($35,000). Light and sound, security, Porta Potties, the agents, everything needs to be balanced and paid for.”
Even promotional posters and other commercial advertisements all have to be approved by the bands’ respective agents.
The Bingo Players comprise Paul Baümer and Maarten Hoogstraten, two men from the Netherlands who started in 2013 by securing a worldwide top ten hit with their single “Get Up (Rattle).” They also enjoyed success over in Europe when the same single was number one for two weeks in a row as well as making a splash in 2012.
Unfortunately, Baümer is still recovering from his cancer diagnosis and will not be able to make the Fall Concert.
The Bassjackers, the collective name for Marlon Flohr and Ralph van Hilst, started their career in 2007. The former had experience in DJ-ing and the latter worked on different types of dance music until it was decided they would fuse together. They formed their first single “Beat Cut,” which led to their careers gaining ground and reaching international dance charts. They eventually released “Mush Mush” which became one of the biggest club/festival tracks of 2011. Nowadays they remix for artists such as Rihanna, Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta and more.
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