On Friday, Feb. 13, the Elizabethtown College Office of Student Activities (OSA) hosted a country music concert featuring singer-songwriter Eric Paslay in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. Performer Clark Manson was the opening act. This event was the first larger concert held on campus in nine years.
After hosting smaller acts in the past, OSA knew that it wanted to bring a notable name to campus. “We knew we wanted to do something bigger this year,” junior chemistry major Carly Henry said. As Students Working to Entertain Etown (SWEET) student coordinator, Henry was excited to assist in planning a large-scale event that would attract both students and community members. Because Lancaster county has many fans of country music, she and Toni Niles, the director of student activities, thought that inviting a country artist to campus would be a good start to hosting bigger events at Etown. They worked with a middle agent to book Eric Paslay and Clark Manson.
To advertise the concert, OSA hung posters around campus to generate student interest, put flyers in local bars to attract community members and gave away free tickets to callers on NASH FM 106.7 who could successfully answer college major-specific trivia questions from the Wheel of Etown Majors.
900 tickets were available to fill Leffler to capacity; about 800 tickets were sold. Between 400 and 450 Etown students attended, taking advantage of ticket presales for $5 less than the regular cost of $20.
In total, about 50 students were involved in the production of the event, all of whom “worked unbelievably hard, and that hard work definitely paid off,” Stephanie Turnbull, sophomore accounting major said. About half of the 50 OSA student employees spent time planning and working the concert, while five students worked to cater the event and another half dozen worked with Barry Fritz, the Etown technical operations director. Also involved were Joe Hudzick, manager of special events at Etown, and Bear Security and Duttera Sound, hired by OSA to assist behind the scenes.
“We put a lot into making sure it would be laid back,” Henry said. “There was a lot of planning.” The day of the concert was fairly easygoing considering its size. The performers and their equipment arrived on their buses at about 8 a.m. and loaded in at about 11 a.m. By 4 p.m., sound check was over and the SWEET employees prepared to grant the audience entrance. Doors opened at 7 p.m., and Clark Manson began at 8 p.m.
During his 40-minute set, Manson played his own songs such as “Runnin’ With The Night” and “John Wayne” and covered the hits of his friends and fellow country singers, including Jake Owens and Luke Brian.
Manson took the opportunity to socialize with his fans during and after the show, taking dozens of selfies on the phones of his fans and making sure to offer autographs and high fives.
An interactive performer, he made it very evident that he appreciated the student excitement and felt welcome on campus. “It was awesome and pretty cool I was the first person to perform here in nine years,” he said.
After Manson’s 40 minute set, Eric Paslay took the stage and performed several of his hits off of his album as well as songs he penned for other country artists, including Lady Antebellum, Eli Young Band, Love and Theft and Amy Grant. The audience loved his performances of “Song About a Girl,” “Angel Eyes” and “Rewind.” Between songs, Paslay encouraged Etown students to look to their futures and continue working on themselves everyday. “If life isn’t going how you want it to be right now, it will,” he said. He shared stories of his own successes and failures, offering the audience an intimate look at the inspirations behind his songs. His performance of his single “Friday Night” brought a close to the exciting Friday night on campus.
“The concert was an absolutely amazing experience. From working behind the scenes during the day to being a part of the audience near the front of the stage, my admiration and understanding of what it takes to put together an event like this skyrocketed,” Turnbull, OSA Publicity Assistant, said.
In the future, OSA will “switch up” the genre of the featured act to provide students with a variety of on-campus experiences. “It’ll be neat to bring big events to campus,” Henry said. “I’m hoping this concert helps us bring even bigger names to Etown in the future.”
The Etown OSA is currently planning its next exciting event: “TGIS: Tributes,” which will be taking place in late April. For more information on SWEET-organized events, visit http://www.etown.edu/offices/osa/sweet.aspx.
