The Undergraduate Council's De La Soul concert is still on, council officers said last night.
Treasurer Michael P. Beys '94 and former Secretary Nhan T. Vu '92-93, two of the concert's organizers, said they would go ahead with the event in agreement with the Athletic Department's limitations on the use of Bright Hockey Arena.
De La Soul, a rap and hip-hop group, is the main act scheduled for the May 1 "Rock for Shelter" concert to benefit the homeless.
Beys and Vu said earlier this week that the administration's restrictions on seating and ticket sales might force them to call off the charity concert.
But on Tuesday, Beys and Vu met with Associate Athletic Director Malekoff, who sets conditions for use of thehockey arena, told the event's planners last weekthat De La Soul would be allowed to perform onlyif attendance were limited to 2000 students. Beysand Vu had originally believed the hockey arenawould hold 3200 people, although they now agreewith Malekoff's estimate. Beys and Vu also agreed to the restriction ofticket sales to students from Harvard and fiveother Boston-area colleges. Tickets will be soldonly at the Holyoke Center Ticket Office on theday of the concert, according, to the contract.Concert organizers said they were initially"perplexed and dismayed" with the restrictions. Beys told The Crimson Monday night that therestrictions would probably cause the council tolose $4000 on the show. Early estimates based onselling 2500 seats predicted close to $12,000profit. But the event's planners said yesterday thatthey originally misunderstood Malekoff'smotivations for setting the stipulations onseating and ticket sales. Vu said he is now awarethat Malekoff was only trying to help the councilensure planning for the event would not be toohurried and disorganized. Beys and Vu said that they believemisperceptions of the administration's actionresulted at least partly from an article inTuesday's Crimson that made the situation seemoverly confrontational. Vu said yesterday that his initialunderstanding of the administration's restrictionswas that they would make the concert's success"very questionable," but would not necessarilysink the event. The concert's planners said yesterday that theyno longer expect to lose money on the event. Theysaid they plan to compensate for the drop inprojected revenues due to the attendancerestrictions by cutting projected costs andpossibly raising ticket prices. "Breaking even will not be a problem, "Beyssaid. "We're not going to take a huge loss like Ihad anticipated That is no longer the case." The major concern now is how many corporatesponsorships, earmarked by the council to benefitthe homeless, will be secured, Beys said he couldnot guarantee a figure for proceeds to thehomeless under the newly revised budget. The council has been granted free air time ontwo radio stations, Beys said. It is alsoattempting to obtain sponsorship from Domino'sPizza, Trump Shuttle and the Harvard Co-operativeSociety, he added. Beys said yesterday that he does not considerhimself responsible for raising money for thehomeless. His role is primarily to stage anentertaining student concert that does not losemoney. "I've done my job if the concern is on the plusside," Beys said. "When I was pushing De La Soul,I told people this would be a great opportunity toraise money for the homeless. But I made it clearthat it was not my department. All I can do ishope."
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