UPC with indie band GROUPLOVE

UPC switches spring concert music genre with indie band GROUPLOVE

A switch from the mainstream to indie shouldn’t hinder attendance at this year’s University Program Council concert, UPC members said.

Indie artist GROUPLOVE will headline Thursday night’s concert, but UPC members said they expect comparable attendance numbers to the hip-hop shows of the past.

“Over the last few concerts, we’ve been working to make the spring concert an annual tradition for students on campus,” said Matt Heng, UPC financial manager and a junior advertising and public relations major. “We hope that students trust UPC to bring them great entertainment at a low out-of-pocket cost, so we don’t anticipate the artist being an ‘indie’ artist to have a huge effect on attendance numbers.”

GROUPLOVE will take the stage inside the NU Coliseum at 8 p.m., with Omaha-based Icky Blossoms opening. The free concert was originally scheduled to be in the Nebraska Union greenspace but was moved indoors because of a cold and rainy weather forecast.

Heng said UPC members are hoping attendance numbers at the GROUPLOVE concert will be similar to numbers at past large-scale concerts, but he said no official attendance goal has been set.

“With so many factors affecting the show, specifically the weather this year, we don’t have a defined number attendance goal,” Heng said.

UPC organized its first large-scale outdoor concert in fall 2010, when Big Boi and Macklemore & Ryan Lewis came to campus. In spring 2012, UPC brought Mike Posner and began an annual tradition of a large-scale spring semester concert. Attendance at both of those concerts was around 5,000 people, according to UPC documents.

This year’s decision to bring in a different type of artist was primarily driven by student feedback gauged from two campus-wide surveys that asked respondents what genres of music they would like to see on campus, Heng said.

“By far, the top three genres were hip-hop/rap, country and indie/alternative,” Heng said. “Since our Homecoming Concert is a country artist and the past two City Campus shows have been in the hip-hop/rap genre, it made sense to listen to that student feedback and bring GROUPLOVE.”

Last semester’s country-oriented Homecoming Concert featured Gloriana with the Emmett Bower Band and had an attendance of about 2,000 people, according to UPC documents.

Several UNL students said they are glad UPC decided to switch up the genre of this year’s spring concert.

“I love the sound of indie rock music, and it’s a free concert,” said Kristy Cullan, a freshman business administration major who said she is planning to attend. “I think UPC switching to an indie artist this year is a great idea to give students a different variety and expose them to different music.”

Mackenzie Ryan, a junior accounting major, said she is also planning on going to the concert, but she isn’t sure if the attendance numbers will be as high as at past UPC concerts.

“I think the switch to an indie artist is a bold switch,” said Ryan, who also attended the Big Boi concert her freshman year. “I don’t think many students have heard of GROUPLOVE so attendance might be an issue. But it’s important that UPC has some variety when picking who is coming to our concerts.”