Akon slated to headline fall concert

The Undergraduate Government of Boston College (UGBC) has announced that Akon will headline this year's fall concert. Al Dea, UGBC president and CSOM '10, said he worked throughout the summer with Alex Hirs, UGBC vice president; James D'Ambra, campus entertainment executive director; and Maureen Keegan, campus entertainment associate director, all A&S '10, in order secure the popular R&S artist for the event.

Tickets for the concert, which is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 11 in Conte Forum, will go on sale Wednesday, Sept. 2 in Robsham Theater for $30 each.

Last March, the UGBC began working with the Athletics Department to secure time in Conte Forum and simultaneously researched what acts BC students would like to see at BC, Dea said. "We solicited a lot of suggestions on ideal people that they would like," Dea said. "We worked with our agents to find who, within the parameters, may be available."

Dea said that his UGBC administration will be putting a special focus on student response to their programming, gathering opinions both at the events themselves and at other points throughout the year.

"At the end of the day our programs are for students," he said. "With anything we do we want to make it the best it can possibly be, and as we find out more about students and taking that into account, we hopefully will be able to put out better programs. We want to have an intentionality behind our programming."

"We created a programming survey using GoogleDocs early in the summer and issued the survey through Facebook and UGBC.org to any student interested in voicing their opinion," D'Ambra and Keegan said in an email. "The survey covered many different facets of programming, beyond just music and concerts. While the bidding and artist approval process, as it works at BC, prohibits us from listing a series of artists as options, we did gain great insights into the specific genres most popular at BC."

D'Ambra said that the UGBC decided to forego the floor-seat tickets they had experimented with last spring. Then, tickets were sold designating the holder a place on the floor. For Akon, all tickets will be general admission. "Given that tickets are being sold before school starts, when some students might not be on campus, we felt that this would be the best way to ensure that the most enthusiastic students are given the opportunity to get the best seats," he said.

He said that he and Keegan hope for a large turnout, which would enable them to work for another large show in the spring. "UGBC subsidizes a significant portion of the concert," they said. "When we have an overwhelming response from students in terms of ticket sales, we have more confidence in fronting the money for even bigger name acts."

The UGBC has yet to set final arrangements for an opening act.