This year, the Association for Campus Entertainment (ACE) is more strictly enforcing the policy that Springfest is only open to St. Lawrence University students and their guests. This is in order to preserve an atmosphere that will be the most enjoyable and safe for those students. This past weekend, Clarkson held its spring concert, hosting Waka Flocka Flame and Bass Jackers in Cheel Arena. The concert was open to the public, and many St. Lawrence students went.

Grace King ’18, the president of ACE, said that Springfest has always been free for St. Lawrence students and has been closed to the public. Although, in the past, the rule was not strictly enforced to keep non-students from coming. Concerts in the past have varied between EDM DJ’s, like The Chainsmokers and NGHTMRE, to hip hop artists, like Sammie Adams and Kid Ink. According to King, last year’s concert had more public attendance than usual, and there were more fights.

Clarkson’s Springfest charged $10 for students, $15 for faculty and staff, and $20 for the general public. King said “the point of Springfest has never been to make a profit,” and that “the goal has been for SLU students to have fun.” This enables ACE to focus on making the concert a positive environment for St. Lawrence students.

This is the first year that St. Lawrence has held a competition that gives students the opportunity to open for the other performers. King said that the student opener should encourage more people to come to the concert early on. This year the student openers will be DJ WAZZZA and HEMANT.

Brett Barnes, a senior at St. Lawrence, attended the concert at Clarkson and said that there was a “less than stellar wait time to get in,” but the venue was “spacious” and the concert was great. Clarkson’s concert was in their hockey arena, and St. Lawrence’s Springfest is always outdoors on the intramural fields. Tyler Kost, who is in his first year at Clarkson as part of the 3+2 engineering program, said that he liked the indoor concert better than the outdoor Springfests.

St. Lawrence senior Ryan Byrne said that during the concert, he and his girlfriend left to get water, but when they tried to re-enter, security told them that they could not go in because they did not have wristbands. There was a limited number of wristbands for floor space and once they sold out, the rest of the attendees had to watch from the bleachers, but the events staff forgot to give Byrne a wristband. Security would not allow him back on the floor or give him a refund. When Byrne decided to leave, he stopped by the ticket window and luckily was refunded, but the staff handled the situation very poorly.

Barnes and Kost both had positive experiences with Clarkson’s concert this weekend, but Byrne was very unsatisfied with the way he was treated. ACE has made changes that continue to focus on making Springfest fun for St. Lawrence students. The concert will be Saturday, April 21, on the intramural fields at 3 p.m. Tickets will be given out in the Student Center the week before.