Carolina Productions’ schedule for this semester will have students bellowing “I don’t care” and “I love it,” but not for the reasons you might think.
Chart-topping pop duo Icona Pop comes to CP at the biggest price, but isn’t the only big name act; SNL cast member Aidy Bryant, Marvel Comics creative director Bill Rosemann and author Piper Kerman, on which Netflix series “Orange is the New Black” is based, are also set in the four month lineup.
Icona Pop comes in as this semester’s most expensive act, at between $45,000 and $55,000, according to CP President Adam Mayer.
Of the $450,000 yearly budget, CP will spend between $116,000 and $126,000, Mayer said.
“I was one of the hosts [at First Night Carolina] and they played [“I Love It”] there, and the whole freshman class freaked out,” Mayer said. “It’s a very upbeat, electronic hip-hop genre … [This concert] is perfect because it’s right before Fall Break, so you can congratulate yourself on getting through half a semester.”
Icona Pop is part of a national tour, the Campus Consciousness Tour, so they’re bringing an opener, lights and production essentials. Daytime entertainment before the concert will focus on being eco-friendly.
The all-inclusive package lowers the price for the university significantly. Recent CP concert guest Chris Young cost the organization $40,000, before opener and production costs, Mayer said.
Icona Pop will give their show in the Colonial Life Arena, the first CP concert to use this venue since Kanye West came to the university. CP is making the switch because the Colonial Life Arena is a newer building that is more familiar to students.
“I think it’s perfect for that entertainment venue,” Mayer said. “A lot of big name artists that come here to Columbia without CP come to the Colonial Life Arena, and I think students just enjoy the atmosphere and just being in that area.”
The concert will take place during Homecoming Week for the first time in several years, which Mayer said makes the price tag especially worth it.
“We love teaming up with Homecoming, and it’s a great partnership that we have and we’ve always been trying to do this in the past,” Mayer said. “I think one it brings out the spirit, nothing like going to a concert gets people really hyped. It also helps us because [during] Homecoming Week students are out, involved and wanting to do a lot of things, so we want to make sure we capture that excitement.”
When she comes to campus, Kerman will host a book signing and question and answer session, and the Russell House bookstore will be selling her book.
And off-campus students may be excited to see that the new CP has planned events starting before 8 p.m., including pumpkin carving, a powderpuff football game and laser tag.
“They don’t cost much, but students love them,” Mayer said.
In October, CP will host a 24-hour Harry Potter movie marathon event in the Russell House Theatre and ballroom.
“We’ve come up knowing Harry Potter. We grew up with Harry Potter, and it ended with the last movie. And so we’re like, ‘what better way than to [watch the movies] than to just start through and do all eight total?’” Mayer said.
CP will still offer their traditional events. They will be continuing Jingle Jam this year with Street Corner Symphony, which is an acapella singing group that finished second behind Committed in NBC acapella show The Sing-Off. They will also keep their Talent Performances: student performances such as Acoustic Café, Comedy Open Mic Night and Poetry Nights and competitions like Got Talent and Poetry Slam.
And in October, CP will have the first-ever Foreign Film Friday and show both a Spanish movie and a Danish movie in the Russell House Theatre.
“We had a student come up to us—an international student—and say, ‘All of these movies are in English, but are there any movies for international students?’” Mayer said.
When Mayer and his team realized there weren’t any, they decided a few foreign films would be good addition to the lineup.
These two movies were selected after research on popular international films, and they will continue showing international films in the future depending on the turnout of these.
“Last semester we talked about revamping CP and doing new things,” he said. “I hope the student body agrees with us.”