By John F. O’Sullivan

It’s 4:18 p.m. on Friday, and hordes of students wearing identical t-shirts are frantically running around Sexton Arena. Outside, students unload a semi-truck in the sleet while those inside hand huge pieces of the stage to an officious-looking man.”Anyone not doing anything come over here!” a woman yells from the back of the gym. Nine people turn around and follow her.

This is the side of Pinestock that most students don’t see. The Joint Events Council puts on the event every year, but the five-hour concert requires much preparatory work. When the traditionally outdoor concert was moved inside Friday morning, the controlled chaos got a little crazier.

The weather report called for up to 12 inches of snow, so at 8:30 a.m., Life Safety Director Shawn Vierzba and Student Activities Assistant Director Gwen Schimek moved the concert from Watab Island to the Palestra.

In its 30-year history, Pinestock has only been inside four or five times, Schimek said.

An indoor concert meant lots of last-minute changes, like the removal of the beer gardens. Because the beer would have to be served outside, the gardens were called off altogether to curb binge drinking from students who would run outside to slam down beers before running back inside, said JEC advisor Gwen Schimek. That meant calling vendors to cancel arrangements.

Meanwhile, Pat Haws, the Palaestra’s facilities manager, was keeping a watchful eye on his basketball court’s floor.

“Our biggest issue is wet,” Haws said. Moisture can cause the wood to expand, so a protective tarp covered the entire floor of the basketball court.

The group of JEC students, fueled by burritos brought from St. Cloud, managed to put the stage up faster than they’d ever done in the past. Most JEC members were gone by 9:30 p.m. But just nine hours later, they’d be back.

Picking up the talent

Throughout the set-up, Nikki Bender, the JEC’s hospitality chair, logged 150 miles driving to St. Cloud’s airport and back multiple times to pick up the talent.

Many of the band members weren’t prepared for the harsh Minnesota weather that greeted them Friday night.

“‘It’s 80 [degrees] in California right now,’” said Jack’s Mannequin’s band manager, according to Bender.

Jack’s Mannequin’s lead singer Andrew McMahon emerged from his plane wearing flip-flops, Bender said.

Time constraints

As the concert neared, the amount of students running increased. By noon on Saturday, the student volunteers weren’t the only ones running the show. Roadies, band managers, police officers and other support staff arrived as the band manager for Jack’s Mannequin ordered the doors open

One band wasn’t as prompt as the rest. Saturday morning, as students were lining up for Pinestock, the opening band, Ludo, wasn’t anywhere to be found. They were to drive up from St. Louis, and with the first band to hit the stage in less than 45 minutes, Ludo was still an hour away. But, as students saw on Saturday, they made it in time to perform.

The number of students there to listen wasn’t as high as expected. While official attendance numbers haven’t been tallied, the JEC sold over 1,100 tickets. Those numbers are down from last year’s impressive 2,000 people who showed up to Pinestock 2007.

But the JEC wasn’t disappointed. “Given the circumstances of being inside and the weather, I was really satisfied with the number of people that attended Pinestock,” JEC co-chair Elizabeth Sturlaugson said.

Financial concerns

Still, Pinestock is an expensive event to bring to campus. The cost to book Jack’s Mannequin alone was $45,000, and that’s not including the cost for the stage, vendors, security, and other expenses. Assuming each ticket sold at the full $25 cost, that still leaves the JEC with $17,500 to come up with to pay for the booking fee alone.

“We have a Pinestock budget. We don’t just depend on tickets sales to pay for things,” Sturlaugson said. The amount of money, which comes from a flat percentage of the student activity fee, is not disclosed.

Same thing, but backwards

The concert ended a little after 5 p.m., and as students dispersed, the JEC members went to work on taking down the stage they’d just put up. They were there until 11 p.m.

“It’s hard for students to comprehend how much work goes into this,” Bender said.

But for those involved in setting up Pinestock like Sturlaugson, it’s worth the effort.

“I think that by the sheer numbers we get and the excitement that goes on with Pinestock demonstrates that it’s out biggest event of the year. We’re really proud of that.”

Filed under: Featured, Music, News by Tan Tuohy