The Cadre

unMitiGaTeD A. daclt¥

HY¥PEC! WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING HYPE!! Lack of advertising for on-campus events inexcusable

So, we all enjoyed the Pamela Morgan concert at the Barn the night of the 17th, right? Good time had by all, eh? Actually, now that! think about it, don’t remember seeing you there. Oh, that’s right, you weren’t. I guess I wasn’t there either. Evidently, neither was anyone else. Yes, it’s finally happened: the Barn put on a show and nobody - or something close to nobody - came. This comes as a surprise to no one when you notice the amount of advertising - in this case, none - for the event. I have not spoken to anyone in the Student Union about this event, sol cannot get too judgemental about things - for all ] know, Pamela Morgan could’ ve been booked until a few days before the show was to go on. Maybe vandals stole the signs to make origami dinosaurs, who knows? All I can be really sure of is that I saw nothing hyping the show. No, that isn’t true - I saw a story in Friday’s Guardian about the upcoming show. Unlucky for me, I read the article Saturday afternoon in the library.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time this has happened on this campus - last year, there was a complete lack of advertising for concerts and other events at the Barn, naturally resulting in low (or no) attendance - examples include the Mahones concert of early February, and the various WWF pay-.»er-view events (which I may add have always been strong draws in my four years here, at least when they’re advertised). Of course this is an unsubstantial rumour, but I heard rumblings of the SU being near bankruptcy at one point last year due to the low attendance at events, with the Sloan concert in February being the turning point. And might I add, news of the Sloan show heavily saturated the campus. As I said, this may be conjecture. The real galling thing about the situation last year was the VPO repeatedly writing letters to the then-Panther Prints complaining about the lack of attendance at the Barn. Excuse me, but last time I checked, psychic foresight is not an attendance requirement at UPEI. We can’t attend what we don’t know about.

This lack of advertising of events is bad news for those who may enjoy these shows. It gets even worse when you realize that it’s your student union dues that are being used for these fiascos. I don’t know about you, but I’m a little peeved when I’m expected to shell out a few more dollars than I expected to stage these things and no one shows because the event isn’t promoted. Apathy’s one thing, but laziness on the part of our “student leaders” would be another. I’m not calling anyone names ...yet. As I said, this is one event near the beginning of the year, and the SU should get the benefit of the doubt this time. My point is that plastering the campus with posters would goa lot farther than letting the Guardian tell us what’s happening on our own campus. I love seeing concerts, PPV wrestling and the like at the Barn. I just want to know when it’s happening.

Ross Williams, who'd love to see KISS play the Barn this year

October 28, 1997