By Roberto Rojas
Asst. Circulation Manager
As always, the spring concert at Sacred Heart University has become one of the main highlights of my college year, and having the opportunity to experience four of them during my time here is always an exciting treat. During the course of my first two years, we had a bit of variety within the performers.
Freshman year, we had the opportunity to see rapper Fetty Wap who was at the peak of his popularity when he performed for all the students in the spring.
The following year, DJ Snake was the main act. While I think it wasn’t as hyped up as the Fetty Wap concert, it was still great to see a big performer and renowned artist like DJ Snake, who clearly was my favorite spring concert of my time here in college.
Then junior year came along with French Montana being the main act for the spring concert. This is another rapper who perhaps is very well-known to many students (including myself) on a scale of a Fetty Wap or a DJ Snake, but perhaps isn’t as exciting to many of the mainstream if you wanted to compare him to say a Drake or a Post Malone.
There was some excitement in the air given it’s a concert of a top-performing artist during the week of the concert, but not from what I could expect.
Of course, I did still buy a ticket for the concert and for the cheap price that it was sold at ($20). I figured I’d take it, given that him performing in a much bigger arena or stadium would be twice or perhaps even more of the price the school was charging for him, so I would think that it would be just as fun going with all my friends.
As I was finishing my job for the day and ready to head home and get ready for the concert, I get the message from a friend saying that the concert’s been canceled. I couldn’t believe it.
The school sent out an email roughly hours before the start of the show that the concert had been canceled. What happened, you might ask? Well, nobody knew at the time, but that didn’t stop fellow students from flooding French Montana’s last Instagram posts with very explicit yet hilarious comments. However, you start to think about why such a thing would happen.
At first, when the concert was announced to the student body, the reaction was mixed. It was at the time where Josh Peck was doing his college tour, and tickets were released around the same time for both the performers.
Of course, comparing a musician with a comedian and former child actor isn’t exactly a measurement of popularity. But when Josh Peck sells out a small theater that can seat about a 1,000 or so people compared to a multi-platinum rapper in a bigger gymnasium that can fill over 8,000 people, this is where you start to see the roots of the problems.
Perhaps French Montana is too good enough to fill a Catholic school in New England?
While all of us did eventually get refunds (and I might say a big loss for the school), I feel that it’s something that students have been robbed by and especially the graduating seniors, which the school has yet to announce a replacement to debacle that is French Montana.
I think getting an artist like Drake or the Weeknd would be a long-shot, but having someone like 21 Savage or Post Malone as a last minute replacement and of course, I would still be open of getting Josh Peck again. And this time, get Drake Bell with him.
