The Macalester tradition known as Fallfest breathes new life this semester thanks to a new Macalester tradition, the Programming Board. An outdoor concert similar to the annual Springfest but on a smaller scale, Fallfest will take place this year on September 20th starting at 5 p.m. at Bateman Plaza and will feature four musical acts.

The return of Fallfest, which was absent last year, was proposed by Wyn Douglas '03, the Concert Committee Chair. It coincides with the Programming Board effort to increase and improve on-campus activities that "bring the Macalester community together" according to the Board's chair, Miguel Nieto '04.

The headlining act will be The Promise Ring, an indie rock band that has been receiving much attention lately. Also performing will be a local hip hop group, The C.O.R.E., part of the Twin Cities based Rhyme Sayers, and the two acts that won the recent Macalester Battle of the Bands, rock group The Common Place, featuring Brendon Viele '05, and Finnish Revisionists, a jam band featuring Dan and Greg Walz-Chojnacki '05, Nick Grondin '05 and Jack Phinney '06.

In addition, Bad Comedy will perform sketches between acts, the Programming Board and WMCN will table, and Douglas promises an as yet undetermined "food-treat."

Nieto explained the return of Fallfest as responding to the necessity of a relatively large music event in the fall. "The date is ideal," he explained. "It's still good weather and students are much more comfortable than they were during Welcome Week."

Douglas said that he tried to keep the budget "as low as possible" due to the newness of the Board and the lack of available student input over the summer break. "We didn't want to overstep our boundaries," he said. Nieto agreed, pointing to the fact that the Board is funded primarily by the Student Activity Fee. "We are most concerned about student input," he said. "There was a rather detailed survey handed out in the spring," he said, to assist with their programming choices.

In order to ensure enough events over the course of the year and in anticipation of further student advice, Nieto said that budgeting would be cautious early on. "This year is sort of a trial," he said.

Nieto cites student involvement as the most dramatic difference between the Programming Board and ACE, the group that, until last year, was responsible for planning on-campus activities. According to Nieto, ACE was seen as being merely an extension of Campus Programs and hence too closely affiliated with the administration to reflect student opinion. Thus, MCSG last year dissolved ACE as a student organization, Nieto said.

Though both the Programming Board and ACE consisted primarily of students, ACE was significantly less independent an organization. Last spring, Nieto was elected by the student body to be Chair of the Programming Board, and, with Campus Programs Assistant Director Tara Stormoen, who advises the Board, selected the other seven members. Unlike ACE, it is an autonomous organization with virtually no connections to either MCSG or the administration.

As part of Nieto's goal of student involvement in programming, each member of the board chairs one of six committees: Performances, Public Relations (which has two chairs), Lectures, Diversity, Concerts and Special Events. According to Nieto, this "spreading out" of responsibility allows for more students to "help us figure out what they want and learn a little bit about Macalester" along the way.

For the rest of the year, a hip-hop concert is already planned for Oct. 4th featuring J-Live. Other events, including panel discussions and lectures, are planned.

After working since mid-August on activities, such as Welcome Week, the Board is now beginning to look at the publicity problem. "We're in general trying to raise attendance for Mac programs," Douglas said, by "trying to be more conscientious" in terms of advertising. "Our main strategy is just to have good events," Nieto said. As for of attracting the ever-elusive off-campus crowd, he added that "the better-attended events are, the more likely off-campus students are to come."

"We're working on breaking down the cliques a bit," Nieto said.