Aggie Fest ’11 will feature Sean Kingston
Musical artist Sean Kingston will headline the upcoming end-of-year bash, the ASUSU executive council announced at their meeting Wednesday. The celebration will also include the renaming of 700 North.
The end of year bash, also known as Aggie Fest 2011, will be a three-day event running April 27-29. The on-campus event will be free and open to the public and will include a comedy show, movie screening, and street party featuring musical guests.
A comedy show featuring a yet-to-be-named contestant from this season’s NBC series Last Comic Standing will take place April 27 in the TSC ballroom. Student comedians are also scheduled to open for the featured comedian.
“We have some students with great comedic talent that we want to showcase,” said Tom Atwood, ASUSU programming vice president.
On April 28 ASUSU will show “Back to the Future” on either Old Main Hill or in the TSC ballroom.
On April 29, 700 North will be closed all day for a street party. The party will include about 40 booths from food vendors and local businesses. Atwood said this part of the event will be similar to Day on the Quad.
At 3 p.m., the entertainment will begin with performances from local bands like Falk, Battle School, Til We Have Faces and Profetic, which won the Strings competition hosted by the science council on March 18. The party will also feature The Fictionist, which is currently in the top eight of a Rolling Stones magazine competition.
At 8 p.m., there will be a ceremony renaming 700 North. The new name has yet to be disclosed, but will be something related to USU. Earlier this year, Logan City gave USU jurisdiction over the road. This change will not affect students, Atwood said, as the road is already patrolled by campus police.
“A lot of universities have the streets around it named after their school and we feel this is a great opportunity to add to the character of the university and the community,” said ASUSU Executive Vice President Brent Crosby.
Kingston will perform at 8:30 p.m. After his performance, a fireworks display will go off and a dance with DJ Marcus Wing will be held until midnight.
The cost of puting on the three-day event will total about $43,000. About $25,000 will come from student fee money and $15,000 will come from the capital and support fund, which accumulates money not spent in previous years and is available to any student groups. Other significant amounts come from the USU bookstore and Admissions Office, along with various other offices and organizations at USU.
Proceeds from vendors at the bash will go toward the Zambia Scholarship Fund, an organization that raises money to improve education in the African nation. The Zambia fund originally planned to hold its own fundraising event April 30, but decided to collaborate with ASUSU instead.
The programming board, composed of various members of ASUSU, has been organizing the bash since November.
“It’s ASUSU’s way of saying thanks to the students for a great year,” Atwood said.
The ASUSU executive council also decided not to implement a newspaper readership program at USU at its meeting Wednesday.
Several weeks ago, ASUSU listened to a presentation from a representative from USA Today’s college readership program. The program would have made three newspapers – one national, one regional and one local newspaper – available to students on-campus. The program would cost approximately $3 per student.
ASUSU voted to reject the measure, citing its cost as the primary reason.
ASUSU president Tyler Tolson said the program would cost between approximately $90,000-$100,000 annually.
Lacey Nagao, ASUSU public relations director, said most students go online for their news sources anyway.
“If students really want to read the newspaper they can pay for it individually,” Crosby said.
–rouchelle.brockman@aggiemail.usu.edu