Editorial: CEC, CAC needs better coordination for future Bruin Bash events

This year was a typical one for Bruin Bash. Well, except for the 23 calls to Emergency Medical Services, the sweaty mob that flooded the Intramural Field hoping to get a colored wristband and a rescinded promise from organizers that everyone who wanted to go would be able to.

But none of that really seemed to matter when a 21-year-old skinny French kid in a white T-shirt took the stage.

The undergraduate student government Cultural Affairs Commission and Campus Events Commission wrongly prepared much of the concert, only to have headliner Madeon save the night.

It’s been a common theme of recent Bruin Bashes – horrible planning rendered hollow by a bailout from a high-profile and high-energy headliner. Yet this type of success is not sustainable, and points to a startling lack of preparation from an organization that has put on concert for nearly a decade.

The CEC and CAC have to learn from their mistakes this time around.

For starters, organizers could institute an online lottery system like they did last year, when the flooding of Pauley Pavilion first relocated the concert to the Los Angeles Tennis Center. The Web-based system was a success and avoided an angry crowd wilting in the summer heat.

Instituting a lottery system would have made sense, given that Pauley’s adjusted capacity was well below the number of UCLA students who wanted to attend.

Even allowing a campout, which in years past led to long lines and sleeping bags that snaked down Bruin Walk, but were organized without an incident – would have prevented the human crush of thousands of students with an occasional fainting.

Additionally, CEC could have done a better job of assessing their talent. Putting chairs on the floor of a concert headlined by an electronic dance music artist proved to be counterproductive while at the same time lowering the attendance count of those who just wanted to dance.

Campus Events Commissioner Lexi Mossler said it was an unanimous decision to place chairs due to fire marshal regulations, but CEC should’ve clearly known that an electronic dance music concert will make people dance. CEC could have worked with the fire marshal to address the safety concern rather than restricting everyone’s experience outright.

CAC and CEC have pointed to hundreds of staff tasked with attempting to control the crowd and have blamed unexpected circumstances for the issues that popped up. But with the concert going on more than a decade at this point, it would stand to reason that they would have learned from some of their mistakes.

Admittedly, some of those issues were probably unavoidable. Bruin Bash has led to its own share of alcohol-related incidents in many years, and a long wait for tickets has been almost a signature introduction to the campus for new Bruins.

Thanks to Madeon, that introduction to campus social life was a positive one. But with better planning and further reform, CEC and CAC can make sure they make a good first impression, too.