ASUO announced that Aminé will be the headlining performer at the Downpour concert held in Matthew Knight Arena on May 13.
Tickets are already available, priced at $10 for students and $29 for the public. The funds from the ticket sales will be going to an event fund for the next ASUO administration.
ASUO decided to use money from their surplus fund to give back to the students with a large event that is fun and was highly requested by the student body during their campaign. The surplus fund is currently sitting at a total of $1.07 million dollars as a result of the accumulation of funds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For this concert, ASUO requested a total of $252,000 from the fund.
“I think it’s been really cool to see student government actually serving something that students want and getting the name out, and they could kind of understand what their money is going toward,” ASUO President Luda Isakharov said. “It’s something that students really asked us for.”
To plan the event, ASUO created a concert committee of students throughout campus who ranked their top three choices from a list of artists within their budget. The goal was to pick an artist that would appeal to the highest number of students, and Isakharov said the results put Aminé far above any other artist that was considered.
To make this event possible, Isakharov said ASUO has been working with event production agency Pretty Polly, which works with universities to buy talent for several types of concerts and events. Together, they made an offer and negotiated a deal with Aminé for $150,000.
The remainder of their budget goes towards the venue, hiring the agency, sound and lighting, and staff and security for the event.
For the opening act, ASUO called for local bands to apply to enter themselves. Out of all the local bands who applied, Common Koi and Mommy were selected to open the event through public voting on the ASUO’s Instagram story.
“I think that this is just a pretty awesome full circle University of Oregon band experience,” Mommy guitarist Sam Galyen said. “We met in Hamilton and started playing together, and have been playing around campus, bars, Greek life, all that type of stuff since then.”
Downpour will be the Saturday following the street fair, which runs from May 10-12, on campus, where the opening bands plan on promoting their music and selling merchandise.
“I’m excited to, in this next month, focus on our set and our wardrobe and just every idea we could have to make it as epic as possible,” Common Koi drummer Stephen Strong said.
Reserved public tickets are available at https://am.ticketmaster.com/oregonducks/buy. Tickets will also be available to buy at the door the day of the concert.
