UCONNIC will take place on Thursday, April 11 in Gampel Pavilion. Student tickets will be between $20-$75 and can be purchased currently through the presale or regular sale beginning later today at tickets.subog.uconn.edu. (Screenshot via website)
Spring is finally here, and you know what that means-UCONNIC is just around the corner. UConn’s annual musical festival-esque concert, hosted by SUBOG, is back and it’s bigger and better than ever.
The headliner of the concert is set to be announced soon during an artist release party which will consist of a video releasing the name of the artist, a Q&A with the concert committee, refreshments and an opportunity to learn more about the concert and begin purchasing tickets online. Tickets and wristbands will be given out at a later date.
Last year, SUBOG made the transition from a more standard spring concert, similar to the fall concert, to UCONNIC, which aims to give students the experience of a music festival with multiple performers, various vendors, food trucks and activities for students to participate in. The 2018 lineup included student performers, rapper PnB Rock and headliner R&B artist Khalid.
This year, UCONNIC will have a similar music festival feeling and lineup of student performers along with other openers and a headliner, but SUBOG’s concert committee is looking to make improvements to the concert and has taken student feedback from last year into heavy consideration. There are going to be more interactive vendors and activities outside for students to participate in, and there will be different merchandise available, all of which will be announced during the artist release party.
“We say UCONNIC is never supposed to be stagnant, it should be ever-changing,” Lauren Lewis, fourth-semester communication major and concert committee public relations chair, explained. “A lot of feedback has been taken into consideration… one of our goals has been to make the experience more catered towards students.”
After spring 2018’s UCONNIC, SUBOG released several polls and opportunities for students to give feedback about the concert. A major goal for this year is to make sure the concert is something that students enjoy and want to experience.
“We try to include the student perspective in what we’re doing,” Lewis said.
While not every student’s interests can be accommodated, their goal is to make as many students as possible happy. They are also looking for student engagement throughout the entire festival.
Even UCONNIC’s slogan for the 2019 concert is “UCONNIC is for you,” which shows just how much they are trying to tailor it to the UConn community’s wants and needs.
Presale UCONNIC tickets are currently available at $75. This has received a lot of backlash from students, which Lewis explained could be from a lack of understanding.
“A presale is the most authentic and smartest way to do it (sell tickets). It’s what most music festivals do, and we’re making it as authentic as possible because UCONNIC is a music festival,” Lewis said. “It gives all students an opportunity to buy the tickets whenever they want, and it’s better for students who know they are going to UCONNIC no matter what, and no matter who the headliner is.”
Lewis also explained that SUBOG did not create the online system they use to sell tickets, and said it can crash easily if too many people access it at once. By having the presale, it allows people to have more time to buy tickets and creates a better flow online. If all of the tickets were released at once after the artist release party, the website would be more likely to crash, which would end up causing even more backlash, Lewis said.
UCONNIC will take place on Thursday, April 11 in Gampel Pavilion. Student tickets will be between $20-$75 and can be purchased currently through the presale or regular sale beginning later today at tickets.subog.uconn.edu.
Melissa Scrivani is the associate life editor for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at melissa.scrivani@uconn.edu.
