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Bumstock preps for curtain call

By Ryan Clark

Posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006, 12:00 am

andrew gordon

BUMSTOCK BANTER - Derek Mitchell makes a presentation at a recent General Student Senate meeting.

The curtain is closing on a long-time University of Maine tradition.

Derek Mitchell, the vice president for student entertainment announced that Bumstock will not be continued after this year.

Mitchell made the announcement at the last meeting of the General Student Senate on March 28.

According to Mitchell, this decision had been in the works for some time.

“This has been a decision I have been thinking about for the last few months when it comes to evaluating the financial position of Student Entertainment since I have taken office,” Mitchell said. “It’s a difficult situation since you have fewer attendees but the costs skyrocketing.”

The attendance for last year’s event was less than 1,300 people. As figures show, the event cost $51 per attendee.

Over the years, Student Government has had to take an extra $20,000 from other sections to offset the cost of security, which is around 37 percent of the Bumstock budget.

Although the extra money has usually been allocated, Mitchell has faced the problem of finding a headliner.

“This year there were a lot of difficulties because April 22 is a popular date, and that is when a lot of universities are booking their spring festival,” Mitchell said.

“Bumstock, in that regard, has suffered blows by trying to find a headliner.”

Possible headliners included bands such as Coheed and Cambria, Dropkick Murphys and Morningwood, who opted not to play the event.

Even though an increase to the student activity fee could help in getting a bigger name, Mitchell felt Bumstock would not be worth saving.

Bumstock, which was created in the 1960s, has been a mainstay among the campus community.

Despite its popularity, attendance and interest in the event started going downhill when a culmination of non-attending headliners and lack of a venue started to become issues.

“When I first heard the news, I knew that a lot of people liked Bumstock so I was not sure how that was going to go over,” said Senator William Pomerleau. “Actually looking at the financial situation, as well as the lack of turnout, it does not seem like that bad of an idea to get rid of it.”

The money that usually goes to fund Bumstock will go toward getting larger acts for concerts next year.

Before Mitchell’s announcement, professor Chris Campbell spoke to the GSS about the removal of the mall trees.

Campbell’s 20-minute presentation chronicled the mall’s history and why replacing the 39 trees was important.

Although the members of the GSS seemed to be in favor of the change, some of their opinions may have changed when students in attendance were against the move.

“The trees should be left alone until they are dying,” said Nicole Mercier, who spoke out against the tree removal. “There is no point in having more construction since there is so much of it already going on campus.”

For the second consecutive meeting, the GSS was without President Brigham McNaughton and Vice President Aaron Sterling.

Although McNaughton’s whereabouts have not been disclosed, Sterling went to Boston for medical reasons.

Pomerleau, who has been running the meetings for the past few weeks stated, “Aaron should be fine and we expect him to be back soon.”