2008 Woodie Awards
Let students take pictures at the concerts they pay for
Issue date: 10/4/07 Section: Opinion/Editorial
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As passé as he may have been, at least Edwin McCain let us take his picture during last year's Harmony Concert.
This year's concert featured "up-and-coming" artist Mat Kearney and was partially funded by the student activity fee - $30 billed to all full-time, flat-fee undergraduate students. Though tickets for the general public cost $5, the event was free to Webster University faculty, staff, students and alumni - a good thing, since we as a collective student body paid for it.
Despite the fact that this event was student-funded, photography was prohibited except for a select few, which included a Journal photographer and members of Campus Activities. Though banning photography is not uncommon at concerts in different venues, we at The Journal are beginning to see a disturbing trend that extends this prohibition to our college campus. This is particularly disconcerting when the student body helps fund the concert.
At the Kearney concert, Public Safety officers could be seen barging through the crowd and confronting anyone caught with a camera. However, Kearney's restriction on photography is not the first such case to be seen here at WU.
During Springfest last April, the student activity fee helped bring in Grammy-nominated hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco. More than 800 people attended - greater even than the 650 people who showed up for the Kearney concert. For both concerts, a contractual agreement banned photography. Despite the obvious enthusiasm of the crowd, Fiasco and his people were particularly ruthless when enforcing the photographic prohibition, even going so far as to shine lights at any cameras they spotted in the dark. At least Kearney consented to have the press photograph him; Fiasco only deigned to stand still long enough for us to grab a mugshot.
We at The Journal feel that these prima donna tendencies are unnecessary, particularly when in both cases, the artists had venues full of eager fans. It is disrespectful and vain.
Students who funded the event should not only be entitled to a free admittance; they should also have the right to take photographs - especially when these concerts take place on university grounds, when at any other times they can photograph.
Perhaps, we should start looking for artists who are less concerned about their image and more concerned about the people who turned out to see them. To put it into simple, clichéd terms, those who pay the piper should call the tune.
This year's concert featured "up-and-coming" artist Mat Kearney and was partially funded by the student activity fee - $30 billed to all full-time, flat-fee undergraduate students. Though tickets for the general public cost $5, the event was free to Webster University faculty, staff, students and alumni - a good thing, since we as a collective student body paid for it.
Despite the fact that this event was student-funded, photography was prohibited except for a select few, which included a Journal photographer and members of Campus Activities. Though banning photography is not uncommon at concerts in different venues, we at The Journal are beginning to see a disturbing trend that extends this prohibition to our college campus. This is particularly disconcerting when the student body helps fund the concert.
At the Kearney concert, Public Safety officers could be seen barging through the crowd and confronting anyone caught with a camera. However, Kearney's restriction on photography is not the first such case to be seen here at WU.
During Springfest last April, the student activity fee helped bring in Grammy-nominated hip-hop artist Lupe Fiasco. More than 800 people attended - greater even than the 650 people who showed up for the Kearney concert. For both concerts, a contractual agreement banned photography. Despite the obvious enthusiasm of the crowd, Fiasco and his people were particularly ruthless when enforcing the photographic prohibition, even going so far as to shine lights at any cameras they spotted in the dark. At least Kearney consented to have the press photograph him; Fiasco only deigned to stand still long enough for us to grab a mugshot.
We at The Journal feel that these prima donna tendencies are unnecessary, particularly when in both cases, the artists had venues full of eager fans. It is disrespectful and vain.
Students who funded the event should not only be entitled to a free admittance; they should also have the right to take photographs - especially when these concerts take place on university grounds, when at any other times they can photograph.
Perhaps, we should start looking for artists who are less concerned about their image and more concerned about the people who turned out to see them. To put it into simple, clichéd terms, those who pay the piper should call the tune.
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