Campus Activities Board (CAB) announced on Monday that OK Go will be the band performing at this year’s Dandelion Day. This year posed a challenging search for a band that was within budget and available for the performance.
‘We went through quite a few bands who were either unavailable for various reasons or significantly over budget when we were notified that OK Go had become available,” adviser to CAB and the Associate Director of Student Life at Wilson Commons Melissia Schmidt said.
‘CAB and UR Concerts generated a master list of bands who they thought would be relatively popular with students, would add a fun and positive element and who fell within the anticipated band budget. OK Go was one of those bands.”
OK Go is most famous as an Internet sensation, thanks to their wildly popular music videos.
The video for their single ‘Here It Goes Again,” which features the band pulling off an intricate dance routine on treadmills in a single take, brought the band immediate success and has been viewed over 50 million times since 2006.
The band recently accomplished the feat of making another classic, complex video for ‘This Too Shall Pass,” the first single from their new album ‘Of the Blue Colour of the Sky.” The video is another single-take miracle, this follows a room-sized Rube Goldberg machine flow for four minutes as the band occasionally appears on the sidelines.
Since it first appeared on YouTube in March, the video has already earned nearly 12 million views.
‘To give a one word reaction: woo!” freshman Andrew Quick said when he heard the news. ‘I definitely didn’t expect that. This is very cool.”
While some are excited for the band, Schmidt added concern about releasing its name.
‘We do not publicize the Dandelion Day band because we have found that the band attracts the general public to campus that day and this event is not open to the general public,” Schmidt said.
D-Day is for undergraduates only the event is closed to alumni, grad students, community members and all other guests, and anyone who does have not have an undergrad ID will be asked to leave.
These measures are taken to ensure that the event, which has a reputation for inciting excessive drinking and rowdy behavior from students, is as contained and safe as possible.
‘By keeping the event closed and private to UR undergrads only, we can do a better job at making the day fun and safe, while also reducing risk,” Schmidt said. ‘More and more students realize they need to be responsible and proactive.”
Other events for D-Day include local vendors selling snacks for $2, airbrush tattoos, make-your-own Sandy Candy, free Freezie Pops and a photo tent.
Silverstein is a member of the class of 2013.
