This year’s JazzReggae Festival will be held at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center instead of the North Athletic Field to reduce costs, undergraduate student government officials announced Tuesday.
Amy Shao, USAC Cultural Affairs commissioner, said the facilities cost for renting Sunset Rec would be about $50,000, compared to the $150,000 cost to rent North Athletic Field. Shao also announced the event, to be held on Memorial Day, will feature both paid professional and unpaid student performers.
Shao said her office will be able to pay outside performers after decreasing facilities expenses. In January, she said her office would not be able to cover the cost of outside performers.
In 2013, the undergraduate student government spent $328,000 to cover the cost of renting the intramural field as their venue, according to JazzReggae Festival budget reports. Shao said the facilities cost for the festival in past years is equal to the overall cost of this year’s festival.
Shannon Juarez, executive producer of the JazzReggae Festival, said the venue change aligns with this year’s theme of “going back to the roots,” because the original festival in 1986 was held at Sunset Recreation Center.
Maeve Riley, a second-year theater student, said she thinks USAC is diminishing the importance of the arts by moving the festival to a less visible location.
Zilla Wentworth, a second-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, said she thinks people who do not live on the Hill may not be aware the event is happening because it’s in a less exposed area.
JazzReggae Festival will be held on May 30. Students will be offered admission at a discounted rate.