Like they did for Kanye West last year, Penn students hoping to see rap artist Common in concert will have to make the trek down to Old City on April 22.
Common, who is headlining the Social Planning and Events Committee to Represent Undergraduate Minorities' spring concert, will perform at the Electric Factory at 421 N. 7th St.
The rap duo Kidz in the Hall and singers Keyshia Cole and Jaguar Wright will also be performing.
This year, for the first time, planners elected to make the concert separate from the Penn Relays, since the high-profile track and field event -- which begins April 28 -- coincides with finals.
"We didn't think Penn students would be too enthusiastic about going to a concert right when they needed to study," SPEC-TRUM co-director and College sophomore Ahmed Whitt said.
For many years, SPEC-TRUM held its spring concerts in Irvine Auditorium.
After a two-year hiatus from planning concerts, SPEC-TRUM brought Kanye West to the Electric Factory last year.
According to Director of Student Life Fran Walker, the change in venue last year was necessitated by the difficulty of hosting both the Penn Relays and the concert during the same weekend and by the lack of a large indoor venue with good acoustics on campus.
The Penn Relays and the concert "required more resources, particularly security resources, than anyone had," she said. "Irvine wasn't available, and it only holds 1,290 people. If you have a $50,000 act for an audience of only 1,300 people, you figure out what you have to charge."
For the record, that comes to about $40 per person.
Whitt said that SPEC-TRUM considered a number of venues, including outdoor locations on campus, the Theater of the Living Arts and the Trocadero Theatre, before deciding to keep the concert at the Electric Factory this year.
Though Whitt declined to mention how much university money would be spent on the concert, he said it would not have been cost-effective to have the concert outside.
"It will be about a fifth less to have it at the Electric Factory than to erect a stage and have it at an outdoor venue," he said.
"We fostered a strong relationship with the Electric Factory last year," he added. "A week before the event our production team gets to do a walk-through with the Electric Factory's [production] team, and they tutor us about the lights, the sound and the audiovisual. Also, they have a long history of putting on great shows in Philadelphia."
Whitt said that the decision to keep the concert at the Electric Factory was not mandated by either the administration or the performers.
"Usually performers are more used to the Electric Factory than to venues on Penn's campus, but in no way did they force our hand in choosing where we would have it," he said.
Whitt said he feels that SPEC-TRUM can be more flexible in changing the venue of its concerts than planners of the Spring Fling concert because the SPEC-TRUM concert is open to a wider audience.
"Fling is a very student-oriented event, so it is more important to [the concert] planners to keep the event on campus," he said. "Since our concert was part of Penn Relays for many years, it has attracted students from many different Philadelphia colleges."
Whitt added that there will be buses taking Penn students to and from the Electric Factory free of charge.
College sophomore Kristin Nwobu, a member of SPEC-TRUM, said that she has not heard any grumbling among her friends about having to travel to the Electric Factory, something she attributes to the success of the Kanye West concert last year.
Whitt, however, said that last year he did hear some negative feedback from students.
