Live Music Returns to Ramapo College

By RACHEL ARCHIBEQUE

Following a two-year hiatus and the social distancing restrictions required under the COVID-19 pandemic, Ramapo College returns to its Spring Concert on April 29th.

The students can attend the concert for free and enjoy themselves with friends. The concert hasn’t happened for the last two years, which means many students have high expectations of who will perform and how impressive the concert will actually be. The great minds of Ramapo College are set to put on a phenomenal show for the student body, almost as a “welcome back” to campus life before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Junior Denisse Jimenez expressed her excitement for the spring concert, explaining how the concert will make way for a new wave of change and the possibility of more events similar to the concert happening soon. “I think it’s very exciting! It shows that we’re finally opening up post-pandemic. I know we’re still in a pandemic, but we’re slowly making progress toward a normal life, and I’m excited about it.”

Since the pandemic began, many students have missed out on several opportunities to get involved on campus, and the return of the annual concert is the perfect way to get back out there. In a recent survey highlighted by the Harvard Business Review, 54% of respondents from the United States, U.K., and India stated that they felt like there are certain parts of their lives that they cannot control. One of the concerns students have is struggling to remain social while following the college’s social distancing guidelines. Despite campus reopenings, students at institutions like Ramapo want to see change. Many have been on campus since Fall 2020 and want to have an escape from school and other academic pressures they may feel. 

Several groups on campus have begun planning for the event to please all of Ramapo in mind as more campus programs aim to be accessible for everyone and regain a sense of normalcy within the community. By hosting events similar to the concert, the college and its student body can become more aware of what they can do to get involved and keep up the momentum of change. 

Facing the Music

The College Programming Board (CPB) plans and hosts many different on-campus events to get students involved on campus. From trivia to open mic nights, CPB is focused on engaging the community and letting the student body decide what entertainment they would like on campus.

One of the biggest events the board hosts is the college’s annual Spring Concert before finals week starts. It gives the students a chance to get together for one last event and see their chosen artist. Leading up to this event, performing acts Desiigner, Jay Sean, Jesse McCartney, and Aly & AJ were all announced on March 28 as headliners for the concert taking place on April 29.

Students texted friends for the next 24 hours to vote for Jay Sean first and Desiigner second, while others wanted Jesse McCartney to come instead. After a long 24 hours of heated debates on who should be headlining the college, it was announced that Aly & AJ would perform at the concert, and the anticipation began to rise. As the student body anxiously waits for the performance, the Student Government Association and CPB begin to undergo preparations and event planning for the exciting night of music.

 

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The Countdown Begins

Made up of sisters Alyson Renae “Aly” Michalka and Amanda Joy “AJ” Michalka, Aly & AJ are a singing duo and have been active in the entertainment industry since 2005. Into the Rush, their debut album initially debuted at #36 on the US Billboard 200 and was later certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Many Ramapo students born from Gen-Z associate the duo with their hit song, “Potential Breakup Song” the group has made a name for themselves through songwriting and acting. Ramapo College is just one of the many stops Aly & AJ will be making on their tour, A Touch of the Beat, stopping in New Jersey after playing the House of Blues in Cleveland, OH. 

While the anticipation starts to build, the work to prepare for Aly & AJ’s Ramapo debut on the 29th begins. When initially joining CPB E-Board as president, Paolo Miyashiro wanted to bring back fun events to campus and plan exciting programs for students of all ages. Bringing back the annual Spring Concert is one of the many programs he felt was necessary to bring back to campus since many on-campus events have been happening throughout the school year. Even though the college has hosted many in-person events, and the goal was to re-introduce the concert to campus again, tensions began to rise months before the event. “For a while, I was afraid the concert wasn’t happening. I only got approval to send out the survey a month before the actual event, and then we didn’t get confirmation from the artist until two weeks before the event. After that, we scrambled to put together publicity, logistical information, hospitality for the artist, recruiting volunteers, and more.”

Planning a concert with $75,000 as their budget for the chosen artist, equipment, food, and other miscellaneous costs is something Miyashiro took very seriously. Even in the early stages of booking talent, CPB had to recruit a middling agent who finds the artists within their budget, and the E-Board narrows down the agent’s list by ten artists that would be a potential match for the college. From there, the students can choose which performing act they’d like to see, and once the majority has picked, the agent makes the artist an offer.

“There are a lot of things that go into a large event like this, including publicity, food, logistics, security, hospitality, etc. We started preparing for the Spring Concert back in late December, which is when we had the middling agent start compiling our list. We then prepared a list of 10 artists, and we were ready to send out a survey to the student body back in early January. However, due to COVID restrictions being increased at the start of the spring semester, we held off on doing any more work for the concert until we knew for sure that we could do it.” 

Despite the stress of putting the event together in such a short amount of time and close to finals week, Miyashiro and his team pulled through beautifully as preparations for the concert were underway. The main event was only days away. No matter how much planning and prep work went into the event, time would only tell how well the event would go as buzz about the concert was spreading rapidly throughout the campus.

A Night To Remember

On the day of the concert, Ramapo College felt electric, and the student body was buzzing with excitement. Whispers between classes and in line at Dunkin’ could be heard as everyone discussed what time they’d be getting to Bandshell Lawn to see the highly anticipated act, Aly & AJ. As organizations on campus like SGA and the Center for Student Involvement got together to anticipate the arrival of the pop duo, other factors were taken into consideration, such as the layout of the actual venue. Because Bandshell Lawn has a lot of space near its main stage and in the surrounding area, officials created a perimeter and an opening for students to enter the closed-off space for the show while maintaining some form of social distancing. The layout of the fences was placed in a way where the students had room to move around, put chairs or blankets down on the grass, and just spread out while dancing if they chose to do so.

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As the anticipation began, student performer James Anthony took the Bandshell Lawn at 8 PM and surprised the audience with songs off his EP and the new single, Pressure. Warming up the crowd with his lyrics and getting them prepared for what was to come in mere minutes, Anthony had the chance to perform in front of students who came in attendance for the first time and left a lasting impression on the crowd and even long after the concert was finished. After the opening act, it was only minutes later that the crowd began to get excited again once Aly & AJ came on stage and performed hit after hit. The duo chose to end their set by playing their most notable song, “Potential Breakup Song.” For a moment, everyone in the crowd came together and just danced and sang together, stress-melting off their shoulders. The concert was the perfect opportunity for students to feel free and completely relaxed in an environment with their peers. Even if the set was shorter than they hoped it to be, the students of Ramapo College had the amazing chance to feel in control of themselves and live in the moment.

After such an exciting night of laughter, singing, dancing, and food truck donuts, many students believe that it was such a fun experience and a great way for people to get involved on campus. The concert was their first live event for many students since coming to the college or even their first time seeing the artists perform. It ultimately gave the students hope and filled them with excitement that as they finish off their years at Ramapo, they would most likely get the chance to have an experience like this again. Aly & AJ performed of a lifetime, not realizing how many students were appreciative and grateful for what organizations like CPB and SGA can offer. Students such as senior Mery Rodriguez thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and as an avid Aly & AJ fan, this was an experience that would surely be remembered.

 

The return of Ramapo’s annual Spring Concert will be remembered as a comeback for the students and the college. The event gave the campus a chance to finally reconnect with its student body after two years of COVID-19 restrictions and mask mandates in the way of putting on a live event such as this. “Seeing the concert come to fruition was such an amazing moment for me. I was standing behind the barricade watching Aly & AJ play for a lively crowd, and I saw just how much fun everyone was having. For me, this was the final moment that gave me hope that we were finally back and on the path of recovery from the struggles of the past two years,” Miyashiro says.