The Programming Council (P.C.) has recently announced that the Spring Weekend musical headliner would will be Boston rapper and songwriter “Sammy Adams”. Certain anonymous members of the Wheaton community have gone online and have been excessively negative toward the Programming Council and their decision. Despite this damaging feedback, P.C Chair, Molly Grannell ’15, still believes the headliner will be celebrated and enjoyed on campus along with other events duringof Spring Weekend.
Grannell explained that P.C. picked Sammy Adams to perform at the event instead of a better-known artist simply due to cost. In a school-wide email that she sent out, Grannell clarified that Programming Council is given a budget that does not account for most of the other planned activities besides the headliner, and thus they have to make room in the budget for all the other activities. “I did my best to select a Spring Weekend artist that was within the budget, available, [willing], and would provide a fun, lively, entertaining concert,” Grannell said.
Grannell found the reaction to this announcement on the Internet, especially on the app Yik-Yak, to be unnecessarily negative and demeaning. She said, “What frustrated me the most was to see all of the hard work that the members of the Programming Council put into Spring Weekend get responded to [in such a negative way].”
Grannell considered the possibility of negative comments about the headliner, as she said that criticism is something that happens annually regarding the headliner announcement.
“There are complaints about the performer around the announcement time every year,” said Grannell. “I think this year having a forum like Yik-Yak available for students to complain with complete anonymity and also have others comment with [upvotes] fueling the fire, made it [all] seem very dramatic.”
Grannell expects that there should be a positive student body reaction to the musician once Spring Weekend starts. “Once Spring Weekend [actually] arrives, students will be excited about all of our events, including the headliner,” Grannell said. “Now that the initial reaction has passed, I would expect less criticism, as that’s what usually happens.”
Grannell believes that the headliner is not the only important aspect of Spring Weekend. Part of the reason why the event does not have a more famous headliner is to make sure that all the aspects of the event are considered. The event will span over four days and will have over a dozen large events, including but not limited to: an acapella jam, a pool party, a “‘balloon-popping”’ art event, an 1980’s workout jam and a 1990’s themed dance.
Despite the strong responses to the original announcement, Grannell still thinks that the event will be very fun for all the students that participate. She also hopes that anybody with any concerns will contact her directly, as she said, “I think Spring Weekend will be fantastic as it has been in past years… I hope that students will come to me with [any] questions, be it via email or in person. I’m here to talk and I’m here to listen.”