#wahoo11

Part two of my past weekend consisted of me working the Wildcat Wahoo Concert Sunday. You know me, I never get to take a breather, I'm always somewhere doing something. Last year's Wahoo Concert, I was the Artist Hospitality Chair meaning that I was in charge of getting everything (except the booze) on the artist's contract riders. Last year we had a number of acts like 3Oh3, Cobra Starship, Travie McCoy, and I Fight Dragons. This year we had Snoop Dogg. This year, since I am the vice-president of UIB, it was implied that I be in charge of the concert in some capacity but I did not really have a title.

It's a really awesome opportunity to be a part of the production of a major concert and an opportunity that only comes to someone my age through my involvement in the programming board. The day of the a major event is never as hectic as you anticipate it to be. Besides the talent being late, everything else went very smoothly throughout the day. Since I had no real responsibilities during the day, I declared myself the social media manager for Wahoo. My job was to make our Facebook fans and Twitter followers feel like they were there with us setting up for the concert from the comfort of their dorm room. Throughout the day, I sent out live tweets and posted pictures of the progress of the set up of the event and the goal was to get #wahoo11 trending. Unfortunately, JWU hasn't really jumped on the Twitter train yet, they don't really get it. My side job was to be the runner, so if anyone needed to get something off campus, I would go. My first errand was to pick up lunch for the volunteers from the Subway in Narragansett, RI (about 30 minutes away) not the one off Narragansett Blvd (across the street from Harborside campus). Then I was sent on a mysterious errand to the ATM from Snoop's manager to withdraw the maximum amount of cash. And then I picked up dinner for the volunteers from Chipotle.

*side-note* My one complaint about Chipotle is that the online ordering process makes no sense for trying to order for a large amount of people. They offer many options, but none that were very feasible for me. You can either place individual orders online, fax in a burrito by the box order, or do a group order by sending out email requests for everyone to fill their order. For one, I was not going to sit and make 40 individual burrito orders, second, I did not have access to a fax machine, and third, there was no way I could send out an email to every volunteer so they can fill out their own individual burrito order. Because of this I had to call the store and make a very large and complicated order to a woman who was very busy and did not speak english very well. Chipotle, why can't it be easier to make large orders online??

Due to the nature of the artist and the show, we were forced to open doors an hour late. This caused some problems, especially when the crowd boo'd the opener off the stage before Snoop Dogg had even arrived. This forced the crowd to have to wait in the gym for an extended amount of time, and there was no re-entry so the attendees were trapped essentially. Finally Snoop arrived around 7PM when he was technically supposed to arrive at 10AM. He literally came in through the back door, picked out a pair of sunglasses, and walked on stage to perform. It would naive to assume there would be zero drug use at a Snoop Dogg concert, but I had no idea the students would hot box the gym. If started off with a few clouds of smoke here and there in the crowd then eventually the whole gym was filled with smoke. Interesting experience...
After the show a select few of us got the chance to meet Snoop Dogg himself. Also interesting.... I wouldn't say I'm one to be starstruck, but I had no idea what to say to the man, especially since I'm not like a crazy fan. It didn't seem like real life that Snoop Dogg was in the room that we hold UIB meetings in weekly.

Despite the elements that we beyond our control, it was a great event. The show was followed by a long night breaking down and loading out the stage, sound, and lighting equipment. Lots of heavy lifting, but since the Carnival and Concert were split into separate days this year, we got home earlier than we would have if it were all one day. All and all, great experience. Does is make me want to get into the music business though? Not anymore.

Until next time...