Preparations are underway for this year’s FEST, the annual concert culminating the end of spring quarter and arguably one of the biggest events for DePaul students. DAB, the DePaul Activities Board, plans and hosts student events including FEST, which requires extensive planning and student polling in order to occur. This year’s FEST process is a bit different.

FEST Coordinator and DePaul student Rachel LaFranconi explains “every year there is an online poll where students can vote on their top choices for FEST headliners and openers. We decided to also host an open forum in the student center where students wrote down the names of artists they wanted to see on the poll.The finalists made it onto the poll which went up in the beginning of December and could be found online on the DePaul Activities Board website, Facebook page, Twitter, blogs, etc.”

Because of the volume of student votes, the online poll closed Saturday Jan. 8th. However, due to student popular demand, the FEST poll is reopening for a few weeks to allow additional voting.

“We received more votes than we ever have before. It was up for close to a month and generated several hundred votes a day,” LaFranconi says. The next steps in garnering musical entertainment for FEST are difficult since doing so entails working with artists and negotiating performance price.

“Unfortunately, this is where it gets tricky and I know this is where a lot of students feel frustration in the voting process. Once votes are in, we contact every artist in order of number of votes and begin talking numbers and availability again. Sadly a lot of times artists’ availability changes from day to day as does pricing, which then disrupts the entire process and often forces us to move on to another artist on the ballot. It can be hard a lot of the time because we are in a big city so there is always competition for students’ attention,” adds LaFranconi.

Headliners and opening act performers on this year’s ballot include Chicago native Kid Cudi, The Black Keys, Andrew Bird, B.O.B, Passion Pit, Trey Songz, The Flaming Lips, Cold War Kids, Wiz Khalifa, Janelle Monae, Sleigh Bells, Surfer Blood and Yeasayer.

All names on the ballot were selected by DePaul’s student body during the open forum preceding voting. While the headline and opening act performers won’t be announced until spring, several students are already anticipating this year’s concert.

“I voted for the first time this year and I’m excited about the selections like Kid Cudi! Even though I’m a senior and have never been to FEST, I’ve heard its fun and I definitely plan to go this year,” says DePaul senior Amanda Smidt.

In contrast, other students are voicing their frustration with the FEST process, as the FEST winner is not always everyone’s first choice.

“I have voted before but never attended because nobody I liked ever won the FEST ballot. I was in the U-Hall dorm freshman year and I thought it was annoying because if you didn’t like the music at FEST you still had to hear it blasting through your window,” laments Kata Traxler, DePaul junior.

Regardless of the musical options being your top performance pick or not, DAB’s dedication to hosting an entertaining event for students with famous names is no easy feat.

“I’ve never attended FEST but I voted a few years. I think it’s great that a student run organization creates these events for DePaul’s student body and is able to pull them off,” says senior Trent Gherardini.

DAB members have also been reaching out to the student body for feedback even after the FEST ballot closed.

LaFranconi says “there will be a few more public events where people can learn about the process of FEST throughout the year. They will be able to talk directly to me and the people who help make this possible. I really want to alleviate frustration with the event and look forward to making this year’s FEST the best DePaul has seen.”

For continued updates on FEST and to vote for the FEST ballot, visit the DAB website (dab.depaul.edu) or follow Rachel LaFranconi and FEST music coordinator Liz Marie Palomo’s blog about the FEST process.