Fling Concert Moves to Penn Park

Now that Spring’s Break come and gone, we’ve all got one thing on our minds—and if this isn’t it, you’re doing it wrong. Spring Fling’s going down April 21–22, which is just 36 days(!) from now. It’s not like we’re counting or anything.

Before you start placing bets on the next biggest name to come to campus after Joe Biden, this year’s Fling concert’s already got us buzzing, as it’s taken on new territory—literally. This year’s concert won’t be happening in Franklin Field. The new destination? Our backyard, aka Penn Park.

While Franklin Field might have that Wells Fargo feel and the potential to make the Fling concert feel larger than life itself, Penn Park’s the move in more ways than one. And after catching up with Rachel Erani (C‘17), SPEC Concerts co–director, we’re convinced.

1. It’s easier on your budget.

Think about it this way: Franklin Field is like your needy ex. It’s definitely not a cheap date, it’s complicated, and it makes life feel unfair. By moving to Penn Park, SPEC’s avoiding enormous production costs and logistical nightmares. That gives the SPEC committee wiggle room on the sticker price for tickets, which will see a "significant difference." Last year's floor passes were $50 and seats were $40, so we'll gladly welcome the price cut.

While all this doesn’t necessarily affect the budget for talent, Rachel says it's big enough that we’re just about certain your wallet will thank you.

2. It’s fair.

Remember the floor pass contests? And those psychos who “would do the contest, get floor passes, and then sell them at a ridiculous price on a secondary market”? As Rachel put it, “that caused a lot of chaos.” Thanks to the big move, that doesn’t exist anymore now that everyone’s in the park. We can almost hear Oprah saying ‘you get a ticket! And you get a ticket! And you get a ticket!’

3. It’s accessible.

Simply put, there’s one kind of ticket, one price, which makes for one experience—for everyone, on (almost) any budget. Everyone should be able to fling (even if ‘fling’ isn’t a verb), and the move to Penn Park gets the job done: by lowering ticket prices, they’re essentially “eliminating the exclusivity.” As Rachel put it, SPEC Concerts really “wanted to make it more accessible to students, more affordable.” And they’ve just about done it.

4. It’s spacious.

Love the opener, hate headliner? Vice versa? Whatever. Rachel’s advice: “If you want to be in the front for one artist and move back for another, that’s totally an option whereas it wasn’t with Franklin Field.” You can stand extra close, extra far, somewhere in between, we frankly don’t care. All we know is that we’re restricted to section F12 no longer—the whole park is your oyster.

5. It’s got the festival feel.

Nothing about Franklin Field screams Coachella. Penn Park, on the other hand...you, Penn Park, your flash tats and flower crown might just have your Insta followers fooled.

6. It takes the load off.

Angling tickets to the concert should never feel like a 5th class. Between coordinating with your friends, winning, and putting together the money, in past years you might have convinced yourself that it just wasn’t worth it and given up. Now, it's as easy as this: "As long as you and your friends show up together, you can get a spot together." Now, you can go to the concert with whoever, whether that’s planned or on a whim. After all, aren’t we all just here for the music?

While this decision's been in talks for years, "this is the year that all of those groups and organizations on campus were able to come together on it, agree on it and work together on hammering out the different issues, the specifics, the details," Rachel said. Penn Park poses new logistical challenges, but Rachel's put us in good hands, working with risk management and campus athletics "on figuring out the safest, most efficient ways to get that done." Plus, it's not all new to them, as a Hillary Clinton rally was held there as well, which was "helpful in terms of gauging what can work for the Spring Fling concert too." 

We don’t know about you, but we’ve already ordered our Fling tanks. See you at Penn Park.