Guests to be charged $20 fee at spring Lawnparties

Graduate students, who formerly could attend Lawnparties for free if they were guested in by an undergraduate, are allowed to purchase tickets for Lawnparties for $20 but are not allowed to bring guests. The event will remain free for undergraduate students. For previous Lawnparties events, students had to register their guest with the USG but did not have to pay a guest fee.

The USG based its decision to implement the guest fee on the results from a recent student survey. When asked if they would be in favor of implementing a guest fee in order to “help [the USG Social Committee] draw bigger talent to campus,” 40.7 percent of students replied that they were in favor and 39.3 percent said they were neutral, while only 20 percent were against the idea.

USG social chair Benedict Wagstaff ’14 said the data showed that the average undergraduate was either in favor of charging guests or did not care either way.

“As guests were a group that did not currently contribute to the Lawnparties event budget, it made sense to act on this feedback and work to make events in the future bigger and better,” Wagstaff explained in an email.

Though the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students is involved with collecting the funds and providing the USG with logistical support, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas Dunne said ODUS was not involved in the decision to charge guests a fee and the USG made the decision itself.

Dunne added that he believes the funds are used to offset some of the costs associated with the concert.

USG president Bruce Easop ’13 said there were no plans to charge undergraduate students for attending.

“Undergrads already contribute to Lawnparties through student activities fees,” Easop said. “We felt it would be appropriate for guests to provide a comparable contribution to improve the quality of the event.”

Wagstaff noted that fees for undergraduates to attend would be established only if the student body decided they wanted a different type of Lawnparties.

“Only if there was an overwhelming student push to go beyond the current Lawnparties model and head more toward the Penn Spring Fling direction [would] undergraduate fees possibly be required,” Wagstaff said.

Spring Fling at Penn requires all students to pay $45 for floor passes or $35 for general admission tickets. Similar to Princeton, Penn also charges an additional $20 fee for students who bring guests. Tickets are also sold in advance to the general public for $50. Performers at this year’s event, which took place April 13 and 14, included Passion Pit and Tiesto.

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Brown charges students $17 for each day’s ticket to their Spring Weekend, which took place April 20 and 21 and featured Childish Gambino, who will headline Lawnparties. Yale held its annual Spring Fling on April 24 headlined by Passion Pit, T-Pain and 3LAU. Admission is free for all Yale students and faculty. All Yale affiliates are allowed to bring one guest, for which there is no guest fee.

Lawnparties guests must be at least 18 years old and possess a valid ID from another college. In order to bring guests who do not meet this criteria, students must get permission from ODUS by May 1. No guest tickets will be available on the day of the concert.

The dubstep duo Timeflies will open for Childish Gambino at Lawnparties.