I was quite taken aback early Friday morning when I opened up The Post to see that Arcade Fire was in fact coming to Athens, Ohio. I heard rumors that such an event was occurring, but with the whole Dave Matthews Band is coming to OU fiasco, I didn't think such a thing could be true. When The Post confirmed such an event was taking place Sunday night, I was ecstatic and I immediately planned my entire weekend around seeing them play live, for free, in Nelsonville.
There was one particular part in the article, however, which I was very disenchanted with. That would be the part of the article that stated that the Baker University Center had been asked to hold such a show so that more of the student body could attend but declined because there would only be two business days to prepare.
I know that times are hard and finding people to work on the weekend can be difficult, but the band was willing to play for free for the students of this university. Not to mention, we seemed to set up for Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton rather quickly, if I remember correctly. I also realize that setting up for a full band is a more daunting task, but I'm sure people who wanted to see the band play at Ohio University would have been willing to volunteer just as much time as the members of the OU Democrats were willing to volunteer at Stuart's Opera House.
With all the venue confusion, I feel many fans of the Arcade Fire were left out in the cold, whether it be because they thought there were only 250 tickets, or because they did not have the means to get to Nelsonville (there was, unfortunately, no transportation provided). As far as I can tell, the university is looking for more positive publicity. With this in mind, I don't quite understand why the Major Events Committee was unwilling to jump over these hurdles so that they could boast about hosting an event with Grammy-nominated artists who have produced a record reaching #2 on The Billboard Top 100 Albums chart. That's the type of publicity OU should be striving for. It's too bad we will be unable to brag about it.
Conor Hogan is a sophomore media arts and studies major.
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