Far East Movement to headline Lawnparties

The electro-hop group Far East Movement will headline the USG-sponsored concert at Lawnparties this Sunday at Quadrangle Club, with mash-up groups The White Panda and The MashMaticians opening. USG president Michael Yaroshefsky ’12 and social chair Benedict Wagstaff ’14 announced the news early Tuesday morning on the website lawnparties.com.

The announcement comes over three days after the social committee announced the guest policy and lineup for the rest of the eating clubs through the website. The social committee noted on Friday that the administration had asked the USG to hold off on announcing the main act.

Wagstaff posted a note on the site apologizing for the delay, and explained that personal and logistical matters prevented the social committee from being able to announce the lineup sooner.

“Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances both on a personal level (with a death in the family) and at the University level (with administration wrapped up in dealing with wave after wave of challenges — special thanks to mother nature) getting contracts finalized and approved by all parties took much longer than anticipated and we sincerely apologize for the delay,” Wagstaff wrote on the website.

Wagstaff told The Daily Princetonian on Monday afternoon that the committee would be prepared to make the announcement later that night. The delay until early Tuesday morning allowed the web team more time to design the online flyer for the event, he said.

The decision to pursue Far East Movement came after Yaroshefsky sent out an email to the student body last May with a link to a musical preferences survey for Lawnparties. The survey represented a fulfillment of Wagstaff’s campaign promise to solicit direct input from students before selecting a Lawnparties artist.

The survey asked students to list the top five artists they would like to see at Lawnparties and which genres they would like to see represented at the USG-sponsored contest. It also surveyed whether students would favor moving the performance to later in the day, using the concert as an opportunity to raise awareness for a cause or having several smaller artists instead of one main act. According to Wagstaff, Far East Movement appeared as a favorite artist on a number of surveys.

“Far East Movement was selected by the numerous survey participants as a campus favorite and therefore we felt confident inviting them to play at Lawnparties,” Wagstaff said in an email to the ‘Prince.’ “We realized that by presenting this lineup we’re offering live acts whose shows can appeal to the majority of campus and are guaranteed to keep the crowd moving and engaged.”

The survey results were not the only criterion that the social committee considered in deciding which artist to pursue, however. Wagstaff said the committee designed an “index” of potential artists that evaluated their musical past and future, their performance style and the survey results.

“Far East Movement impressed across the board and presented itself as a strong contender throughout our search,” Wagstaff wrote. According to the post on the Lawnparties website, the social committee had initially contacted 175 different artists before narrowing it down.

Though he wrote on the site that the survey responses made it clear that pleasing every Princeton student is impossible, Wagstaff said that the results proved to be very helpful in general.

“The survey responses were very helpful as they allowed us to better understand what Princeton students were and are hoping to see at future events,” he wrote. “The analysis carried out on our findings gave us some great ideas for both the musical and organizational sides of this important Princeton tradition.”

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Last fall, Far East Movement became the first Asian-American group to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart with its hit single “Like a G6.” The Los Angeles-based group is also known for its hits “Girls on the Dance Floor” and “Round Round.” The group is currently embarked on its Free Wired World tour, which includes several college campuses around the country.

The White Panda is a Chicago-based mashup duo which performed at Cloister Inn last spring. The MashMaticians are a Princeton-based mashup duo consisting of Lester Nare ’13 and Christina Clark ’13.