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Nest Fest 2018

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A Boogie Wit da Hoodie headlined the 2018 Nest Fest at Germain Arena on Thursday, March 23. The openers for A Boogie were Hoodie Allen and Allmand.
“It was an exciting experience to be a part of,” said Jill Romero, a sophomore at FGCU. “I liked the energy of both the performers and the crowd.”
Over 2,000 people attended the concert which was an increase from last year’s Nest Fest, with many attendees being students at FGCU. Ben Yaffe, the Director of Concerts for Programming Board, was excited about this year’s turnout.
“My proudest moment this year was when Hoodie Allen asked how many people in the crowd were students and most of the venue raised their hands,” said Yaffe. “We had a lot of people at Eaglepalooza, but a good number of people in the audience were students, so this was a great concert for the student body.”
The crowd turnout, along with the energy of the performers, led to a great performance to attend. The experience is the reason to go to concerts for many, rather than just listening to the music at home.
“I love the experience of going to a concert, and that’s a big reason I wanted this position,” said Yaffe. “Funny enough, the first concert I went to was in 2014 where I saw Hoodie Allen.”
The job of Director of Concerts is a job that many people do not know about. The job title seems self-explanatory, but there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that goes unnoticed.
Planning a concert involves contacting artists, maintaining good relationships with managers, listening to students, negotiating with countless people, and doing so many small tasks that come together on concert day and make the show a success.
This was Yaffe’s last concert as the Director of Concerts since he will be transitioning to the position of President of Programming Board in the coming months. Austin Oberfrank will be the new Director of Concerts and while Yaffe does have a few regrets with his time in charge of concerts, he is eager for his new role.
“One of my biggest regrets as concert director was not doing surveys [to see who the students wanted to perform],” said Yaffe. “But that’s one of the things I recommended Austin should do so we hear the students’ voices.”
It can be easy to forget that students oversee these concerts, but this means they are more understanding of students and share the students’ tastes.
“We’re here for the students,” said Yaffe. “Let us know what you think – if you liked it, if you didn’t – let us know so we can do a better job for the next concert.”

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