On Sunday Oct. 6, before most of the campus was even awake, SCOPE members and volunteers were at the Whittemore Center prepping for the arrival and performance of three-time Grammy nominee, Flo Rida. SCOPE, or the Student Committee on Popular Entertainment, has been putting on shows at the University of New Hampshire since the early 1970s.
By midafternoon on Sunday, the lines for floor seating had already begun to form, and by 6 p.m. they had extended well past New Hampshire Hall on Main Street. The plaza in front of the Whittemore Center was wall-to-wall with concert goers, all eager to get a prime spot against the barrier on the floor. When the doors opened shortly after 6:30 p.m., the floor and stands filled up with a flood of energized UNH students and community members waiting for the show to go on.
The concert began with the opener DJ Frank White, a Boston-based DJ who has been spinning his unique blend of Hip-Hop, House, Rock & EDM for two years. At 8:30 p.m., DJ Frank White began his set and kept the crowds entertained until just before 10 p.m. when Flo Rida arrived and the hours of waiting quickly became worth it to those in attendance.
Flo Rida took the stage alongside supporting acts International Nephew and Oya Baby rapping through his greatest hits until just past 11:00 p.m. He also brought groups of students up on stage and jumped into the crowd at different times keeping the audience alive and engaged.
Looking back to the campus back in 2011, your Spring concert performers would have been Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller. Moving from rap, Avicii performed at UNH in Nov. 2011 adding EDM to the scene. Just before then in the Spring of 2010 MGMT had one of their first major concerts at UNH.
The trend of major artists coming to the University originated in the late 20th century with well-known rock acts such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Ramones, Bob Dylan, Phish, and the Kinks, all performing concerts at the University of New Hampshire.
SCOPE, an organization of only students, handles all the tasks of attracting those major acts to perform at UNH, from the beginning stages of reaching out to managers, all the way through taking down the barriers after the show at the Whitt.
“Obviously we want to try and bring the biggest name possible,” said Matthew Wissler, the Publicity Director for SCOPE. “That process starts with a name drop, which begins as a massive spreadsheet of hundreds of artists. Then, we send the sheet off to our agent [Who is not a UNH student but an outside entity who works directly with SCOPE].”
From there, SCOPE picks out who out of that list they can afford and can book for the timeframe they want. With a push to create transparency with the UNH Students, SCOPE has moved to creating a survey that is sent out on their Instagram in which students can have a say in the selection process.
“The issue SCOPE runs into now is budget. The prices artists charge have gone way up, but buying power hasn’t,” Wissler said. This downward trend of buying power, compounded with the recent upward trend of artist pricing resulted in several smaller names being recent SCOPE concert headliners. “Smaller or super niche artists don’t sell as well, and that hurts SCOPE’s reputation on campus,” Wissler said. “People are much more careful with their money. The psyche of ‘just going to a concert’ has died.”
SCOPE’s current budget for concerts is now provided through two sources: the UNH SAF (Student Activity Fee), and the proceeds made through concert tickets. “SCOPE is able to get sponsors, we just haven’t yet,” said Wissler. SCOPE is unable to receive sponsors from alcohol, tobacco, or nicotine brands, a rule which differs from UNH (think the Bud Light Beer Deck at Wildcat Stadium).
This pricing issue did not seem to affect the turnout at the concert Oct. 6. In order to be first in line and first on the floor, UNH students Lily Poljacik, Olivia Delegge, and Nicole Barge arrived at the Whittemore Center around 2 p.m.
“We bought the tickets right at 9 a.m. on the day they released,” said Poljacik, “we all set alarms and FaceTimed each other when we got them.” Poljacik, Delegge, and Barge all said they chose Flo Rida as their number one choice on the SCOPE survey last spring and were overwhelmed with excitement when he was announced as the headliner for this fall.
Poljacik, who has been to each SCOPE concert since being at UNH, had high hopes even before doors opened. “I can tell you right now, this is going to be my favorite one,” Poljacik said.
Despite budgetary issues and walking the thin line between student interest and public scrutiny, SCOPE has been attracting major talent for shows for UNH students for decades now. The artist selection process has developed and will continue to, but the quality of the performances shows the integrity and showmanship of UNH’s students that make up SCOPE.
Stay tuned for who SCOPE will bring UNH in the Spring.
