Brand new campus party “The Big Bang” is set to kick off in less then a week, with YUSU Democracy and Services officer Dan Walker, labelling it the “biggest and most adventurous campus event ever seen.” However, Walker also admits that things haven’t just run smoothly, telling Vision that “as a brand new event it’s obviously taken us longer to confirm certain aspects of the event with the University.”
This has led to somewhat of a delay in the announcement of the acts. By this time last year, all the acts for the larger YUSU events of Freshers’ Week had been known for some time. This year the first performer, headliner Marina and the Diamonds, was revealed on the 23rd of September, with others gradually being released over the following weeks.
Despite this, tickets for the event were put on sale some two weeks before. When asked whether he thinks it is fair that students are expected to pay for tickets to an event where they don’t know exactly what they paying for, he responded: “Tickets went online under the description of the biggest campus event of all time for those who knew they wanted to go to everything, and information has been released over the course of the last few weeks for those who were waiting for more info before they purchase.”
The sabbatical officer also confirmed that YUSU initially hoped to get popular drum ‘n’ bass act Pendulum to play a DJ set.
However, they were unavailable for the time of the event. Instead indie group The Sunshine Underground have been brought in as a warm up act for Marina and the Diamonds, in what YUSU boasts will be “one of the biggest lineups York has seen in a big time.”
Meanwhile, one of the biggest uncertainties surrounding The Big Bang is if the acts will even show up. In the past few years, York has built a reputation for having big event gigs cancelled at the last minute. The artists booked for the past two Freshers’ Balls, Noah and the Whale and Wiley, were both no-shows while N-Dubz blamed “illness in the band”, when they unexpectedly cancelled their summer ball gig just hours before they were set to go on stage. The Noisettes claimed that no contract has been signed, when they dropped out of the 2008 summer ball four weeks prior to the event.
Walker says YUSU have taken no pre-emptive measures to makes sure that this year will be any different, stating that “as with any organisation we lie in an unfavourable position in terms of act booking, with the artist holding most of the power,” but adds that he’s spoken directly to tour managers and agents of the bands and is “as confident as he can be” that they’ll show. “The big acts this year are genuinely focused on providing a fantastic performance for the incoming students,” he said.
However, not all students seem as convinced. Second year Bio-Archaeology student Yasmin Shand commented that “no-one ever turns up to these events anyway, there’s no point buying a ticket to see Marina and the Diamonds here when you can’t even be sure that she’ll even show.”
The Big Bang event was introduced as an alternative to the Freshers’ Ball and Access All Areas, which have been the staple YUSU events of the past year. When running for Democracy and Services Officer, Walker campaign claimed that most first years were unhappy with the Freshers’ Ball, with it being off-campus, overpriced and set too early in the week. He pledged to expand on the Access All Areas concept, and create a bigger on-campus experience at the end of the week. This idea has resulted in The Big Bang. It remains to see whether the change of plans will be deemed a success or a failure. First-year Education student Tallyia Charalambous seemed positive about the event, saying that “YUSU have promised a really good night, but with everything I’ve heard about acts cancelling in the past, I’ll have to wait till it Saturday to make up my mind.”