The months leading up to the college’s Large Scale Event (LSE) are always ripe with speculation. The Roots, Earl Sweatshirt, Macklemore and The Weekend are just some of the performers whose names have been circulating since the semester started. But while the LSE committee has selected an artist, nothing is final. And after the excitement surrounding the rumored performance and later cancellation of Solange last spring, it appears no predictions can be taken too seriously.
“The committee is aware that we are dealing with artists, and there is no guarantee that they will be here until they actually arrive,” said Ryan Greenlaw ’15, head of the LSE committee. “Even after the contract has been signed, it’s still possible for the performer to find a loophole and back out.”
Last year, Solange found such a loophole when she managed to negotiate out her contract when another venue offered her more money.
With a limited budget and the logistical challenges of organizing a large event on a small campus, planning the LSE is not a simple task for the committee. According to Mike Elias, the new student activities coordinator and advisor to the LSE committee, the committee must coordinate with Facilities, Public Safety, production management companies, and Sharples as well as organize hotels and transportation for the performer.
Covering these overheads takes up a significant portion of the budget allotted to the LSE committee at the beginning of each year by the President’s Office, leaving even less to pay for a big act. According to Greenlaw, the committee has been further constrained by a decreased budget to compensate for Big Boi’s pricey performance last spring.
Nevertheless, Greenlaw, Elias, and the rest of this year’s LSE committee are planning an innovative LSE that they believe has the potential to be the best one yet. According to Greenlaw, the committee this year is focused on both showcasing the artist’s talent and creating a performance with a more meaningful impact on the community.
There are plans underway that involve a collaboration between the artist and Chester Sound, a community group where Swarthmore students work with Chester youth to raise awareness through hip-hop, and the artist would also have a significant presence on campus through workshops with the student body. The committee is also pursuing having the concert take place in an undisclosed outdoor venue, something that has not happened in years.
Such drastic changes in the organization of LSE have come in the wake of the arrival of Elias, who has extensive experience organizing student events from his time at Dickinson College, where he served as residential community director.
“Being able to assist students with all of these pieces of the event planning process is truly a passion of mine—and it’s something I’ve been doing for several years,” Elias said.
According to Greenlaw, who described Elias as “very responsive,” “really fun to work with” and “accommodating,” he is doing a great job.
Greenlaw also has transformative visions for this year’s LSE committee and LSE committees in the future.
“Something I think would be cool would be asking the student body what they think about having smaller concerts. Maybe if we didn’t pay so much money for production we could have more big acts but in smaller venues like Olde Club.”
Greenlaw also wants to make the LSE committee more transparent and more responsive to the student body, possibly conducting surveys of student music tastes or impressions of previous LSEs.
“Feedback is very helpful,” Greenlaw said. “Last year, LSE was in the field house, and we heard that acoustically that wasn’t the best, which began our search for alternative venues.”
The committee is currently in the process of getting permission from Facilities to stage the performance outdoors.
In terms of the chosen artist, neither Elias nor Greenlaw could give a name for fear of generating false hype during the contractual process. This year, they have agreed on another rap artist.
“Though we’re not going to have Kanye anytime soon, its going to be a great event for the community,” Greenlaw said.
