Colin Likas | Editor in Chief

B.o.B. fans at Butler University take notice: the hip-hop star is headlining the third annual Butlerpalooza concert.

Bobby Ray Simmons Jr.—better known by his stage name B.o.B.—is being brought in to entertain Butler students at Saturday’s show.

Youngblood Hawke is also scheduled to play. The group is best known for their single “We Come Running.”

The Butler Student Government Association is organizing and running the event.

Unlike previous years, however, Butlerpalooza will serve as the single large concert for students this year.

SGA president and senior Craig Fisher said the Program Board decided to focus on a single larger show in the fall—instead of separate concerts being held in fall and spring—in order to bring in more-prominent artists.

“A large concert of this magnitude is going to be a large first for Butler students,” Fisher said. “It’s going to be the biggest lineup Butler students have ever been treated to.”

According to SGA’s budget proposal for the 2013-2014 school year, Program Board expects to spend $150,000 on concerts. That figure is the same as what was spent on concerts last school year.

As a result of having a single big concert this academic year, Fisher said SGA can bring in bigger-nam artists with the same budget as last year,

The decision to have the single concert in fall versus spring was a decision made to benefit students, Fisher said.

“The feel was, we wanted to get students excited about being on campus,” Fisher said. “Having a concert in the first three weeks of classes is something to get excited about.”

In place of a spring concert, Fisher said SGA will attempt to offer more concert buyouts to students throughout the year.

To offer these buyouts, SGA works with venues in and around Indianapolis to provide students with a large number of reduced-price tickets to concerts at locations like Conseco Fieldhouse.

The process to bring in artists each Butlerpalooza also requires work with multiple outside source.

Senior Kevin Hansen, SGA Program Board’s concert committee chair, said brainstorming ideas for who should perform started last February.

The concert committee was required to approve their choices with Levester Johnson, vice president for student affairs, and Irene Stevens, former dean of student life, before sending out requests to their desired artists.

Hansen said acts are required to be “PG-rated,” largely due to the fact that outdoor concerts like Butlerpalooza can be heard by the surrounding Butler-Tarkington neighborhood.

Negotiations with B.o.B. took “a while,” Hansen said, adding that he was not signed to perform at Butler until sometime in July.

Some complications come into play when the concert committee tries to bring in any artist.

Hansen said the artist must be touring in the Midwest and willing to re-route their tour in order to come to Butler. Hansen estimated that this leaves “only 15 percent” of their options as viable choices.

The work does not stop with choosing artists, though.

Hansen said the concert committee is also required to book a stage, hire crew hands, set up green rooms for artists and bring in food trucks. Rain insurance is necessary to obtain, too, as is approval of the concert area by fire marshals.

“I was surprised at how many aspects go into it,” said senior Camryn Walton, SGA vice president of programming. It is Walton’s first experience helping organize Butlerpalooza.

Barring inclement weather, the concert will be held on the mall in front of Atherton Union. Because of this, the concert cannot go on past 11 p.m. due to noise ordinances in the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood, Hansen said.

Additionally, while the concert is meant solely for Butler students, Hansen said it will be tough to stop people from outside the Butler community from attending.

Walton said she feels an outdoor concert does its own marketing.

“I think it helps that it’s outside because it draws people that weren’t planning on coming before,” Walton said. “You get to hang out outside and listen to great music.”

The concert is slated to start at 7 p.m. Saturday. Fisher said students should attend because it will “be a show unlike anyone has ever seen on Butler’s campus.”

“It’s an overall goal of our Program Board to get students to stay on campus and be excited about programming on campus and in the city,” Fisher said. “It sets the tone for a good year.”