Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Your cover story "University's Silence Outplays Music" [YH 3/2/01], arrives at a somewhat misguided conclusion. Spring Fling's problem attracting a band that appeals to all has nothing to do with the venue and everything to do with money, administrative support, and diverse tastes.

Put simply, good bands cost money. Historically, the Spring Fling budget has ranged from $25,000 to $100,000 or so. After staging, sound, games, publicity and other expenses, there is not much left to pay a band. If the YCC is given $15,000 to pay a band, Dave Matthews will not be that band (he costs 10 times that much). The years when Spring Fling was most universally acclaimed (by maybe 40 percent of campus), surprisingly enough, were the years with the biggest budgets—1996 with moe., G-Love, and George Clinton (held five days after the strike ended) and 1998 with the Indigo Girls.

These years saw a larger than usual amount of support, both financial and administrative. Each year, the YCC Spring Fling organizers must go through numerous ordeals between Woodbridge and SSS and back. Budgets have rarely been confirmed before second semester. By this time, many bands have already set their spring tour schedules. Were the YCC given a rough budget and "fast track" negotiating authorization before Spring Break, a top band would be signed before Spring Break.

Each year, the YCC is vilified for choosing a band that is not popular enough. Sadly, there is not a band on the planet that would appeal to much more than a third of the Yale Community (or even a third of the YCC plus first floor occupants of Woodbridge and SSS). Each year, the YCC is quite responsive. After the funk-fest in '96, the Lemonheads were chosen because they had a name and a few songs everyone had heard of. After Evan Dando flipped Yale the bird in '97, local favorites the Indigo Girls were hired.

After a quiet and feminine acoustic show in '98, Rusted Root came in with a louder and more manly show. After several years of catering to the flannel-clad crowd, 2000 saw Wyclef with his more urban reggae sound. If you add these past five Spring Flings, there shouldn't be a single disappointed undergrad.

Last year's Wyclef show should stand as immutable proof that an outdoor venue is the right choice. In spite of threatening rain, the show did indeed go on, and the several thousand arrayed in the Old Campus were grateful. Yale physically is a campus, not the interior of a cavernous building. The vista of the P-Funk All-Stars hitting several kegs as well as other intoxicants in front of Sterling is somehow cooler than the same view in the Coliseum. The view of Wyclef from your window in Lawrance is a bit more personal than through the plexiglas of the Ingalls Rink penalty box. This "campus" setting is part and parcel of the Spring Fling genre.

I speak from personal experience, having worked on the event as a YCC member (and event chairman in 1998) from 1996-1999, and having attended as a volunteer last year. I plan on returning this year, whether it is Ben Harper or not.

—Eric Peterson, SY'99

Back to Opinion...