Each fall at FAU, the Program Board treats the campus to the Freaker’s Ball, a long-standing concert series that brings in top-billing national acts to perform. But many people often wonder how The Board goes about selecting who will play at a show. We spoke to The Board’s concert coordinator, Victoria Correa, about the process of selecting the musical acts that come to FAU.
“We go through a middle agent – someone who talks directly to other artist’s agents,” Correa says. “They send us a list of who is available during the fall, we see their prices and availability and we compare that to our budget to see who we could possibly get (to perform).”
With a list of possible artists in hand, The Board creates a survey to discover who among the acts the students would like to see perform in that semester’s show. This past summer, the Board handed out hundreds of surveys to students at orientation week to find out who would be the best available act to bring to the 2006 Freaker’s Ball. Correa says that of all the acts listed, Chamillionaire, along with rapper T.I., received the most votes.
“We had a little more (votes) for T.I., but things happened that we couldn’t get him, so after that we were able to get Chamillionaire,” says Correa.
The Freaker’s Ball is one of the oldest standing traditions at FAU, having run since the Program Board’s inception. In Correa’s term as concert coordinator she’d like to expand upon that tradition by beginning to hold smaller, more frequent shows on campus.
“We want to have more Battle of the Bands or local shows. It doesn’t have to be just rock; it could be hip-hop freestyles, country shows or anything,” Correa says.
But The Board’s plans to hold these small shows may be up in the air at the moment. There has been no word on where future events like these could be held since the closing of the campus’ only bar with a stage, Wackadoo’s.
“They (Chartwells) haven’t told us whether the place they are replacing Wackadoo’s with is able to have a stage,” Correa says. “Hopefully it will.”