Students at the University of Massachusetts seem unexcited for this year’s “Mullins Live!” concert. With only six days until the event, the mood among many students has been one of apathy toward both the concert itself and the lineup of artists.
The UMass Student Government Association announced the return of their annual concert on Tuesday, Feb. 21, releasing the names of the headliners for the event shortly after. The lineup includes Mike Posner, Flo Rida and their main headliner Jeremih, a popular R&B and hip-hop rapper, singer and songwriter, who has been featured in albums with big-name artists such as Taylor Bennett and Chance the Rapper.
This is the SGA’s second consecutive year organizing the event and the third year it has run, beginning after the notorious “Blarney Blowout” of 2014, where 58 students were arrested in a series of popular celebrations that occur on the UMass campus in the first weekend of March. The concert is intended to be both a safe alternative to the “Blarney” weekend, as well as a fun event.
Despite this year’s well-known headliners, however, students still appeared unenthused by the lineup.
“I don’t think it’s worth going to,” said Rachel Stevens, a junior marketing major. “I think Blarney itself would be more fun than the concert. I’m not interested in the artists, so I’m not going.”
Ryan Carlino, a senior accounting major, had similar feelings toward the concert. According to Carlino, the headlining musicians are “not eye-grabbing names,” and as a resident of the Puffton Village Apartments, about one and a half miles away from Mullins Center, he thinks the event is not “even worth the commute.”
Other students, like Breanna Whitney, a sophomore hospitality major, and Sandy Pelkowsky, a sophomore finance major, said that they too are not attending the event. It is not because they dislike the performing artists, though, but because they are busy the day of the event. They said they would attend the concert if it was scheduled for another date.
“The lineup does sound good,” said Pelkowsky, who attended last year’s concert. “[It] wasn’t great,” she said of the “Mullin’s Live!” which featured Migos, Capital Cities and Jason Derulo last year. She recalled how there was “not a huge crowd, which kind of makes it a little lame.”
Cameron Ferola, a sophomore environmental science major, who has not attended the “Mullins Live!” concert in past years, said he will probably not attend this year’s either. Although Ferola is a fan of Jeremih, he “wouldn’t go out of his way” for the other two artists.
“I don’t have anything against them, but personally my taste in music is more like a rock-reggae vibe,” said Ferola.
Despite the lackluster attitude of many UMass students toward the upcoming concert, there were a few students who exhibited considerable excitement toward the event.
Dani Chen, a junior public health and political science major, will be attending the event and is “very excited we got the lineup that we did.” Chen attend the concert in 2015 and had a positive experience there. “It seems like every year it gets bigger and bigger,” Chen said. “I think it gives another venue for students to have fun that day, but in a better way,” she added.
Mabel Celestino, a junior public health and pre-med major, will be going to “Mullins Live!” with Chen. She said it is her first time going to the concert. On past “Blarney” weekends Celestino has either been at home or studying abroad, she said.
“I can’t wait to hear the two songs that Mike Posner has,” Celestino said, joking about how she thinks Posner has not produced very much music. “They’re really good ones. But I’m excited.”
Jackson Cote can be reached at [email protected], and followed on Twitter @jackson_k_cote.
