This year’s Spring Fling will feature two major events over the course of the weekend: Saturday Night Live comedian Andy Samberg on April 30, and musical artist Girl Talk on May 1.
Tickets for Samberg’s 8 p.m. show in the West Gym will cost $15 for Binghamton University students and $22 for the public.
A cash-only student pre-sale will take place Tuesday at the Student Association Box Office in the Tillman Lobby of the Old University Union.
A total of 600 tickets will be set aside for the pre-sale. Overall 1,800 student tickets and 600 public tickets are available.
General tickets will go on sale Wednesday online at sa.binghamton.edu.
Girl Talk’s performance, which will take place outside the Student Wing at 8 p.m. following Spring Fling, will be free for all.
“I think it’s just really cool that it’s going to be a true Spring Fling weekend this year,” said Aaron Cohn, vice president for programming of the Student Association.
According to Lauren Coringrato, the SA Programming Board concert chair, the board decided to bring Samberg because he was the No. 1 student pick in the online survey.
He beat out other survey selections, including Akon and Demetri Martin, by a “long shot,” Cohn said.
Samberg is known for his SNL skits, including “Dick in a Box.” He is also a member of the comedy troupe The Lonely Island, which collaborated with T-Pain for the music video “I’m on a Boat.”
“His price was pretty reasonable,” Cohn said. “We know it’s the end of the semester and students are low on funds so we wanted to keep ticket prices reasonable.”
Cohn said he could not comment on the amount the SAPB paid for Girl Talk or Samberg.
The Spring Fling carnival and concert are paid for with money from student activity fee. Through a referendum, the fee will increase from $86.50 to $92.50 per semester for the 2010-11 school year.
The show itself will not consist solely of stand-up comedy. According to Cohn, there will also be an “inside the actor’s studio” component, as well as an interactive portion where Ryan Vaughan, a BU English professor who specializes in humor and popular culture, will ask Samberg questions.
Samberg recently performed at Syracuse University and the University of Florida and will be going to the University of Delaware later this semester.
The Spring Fling carnival will run Saturday from 1 to 6 p.m. Last year’s event began at noon and ran till 5 p.m., but the time schedule was changed so the carnival would have a smoother transition into the concert, Cohn said.
The carnival will also host five rides that will be placed outside the upper-level New University Union and along the spine of campus.
Another change to Spring Fling will be the food. This year the options will include shish kebabs, spiedies, sausage and peppers and salads instead of the usual hot dogs and hamburgers. The trade-off will be that students have to pay for the food.
“It will be reasonable and students can pay for it on their meal cards,” Cohn said. “All the money we used to put toward the free food is what paid for Frost Fest.”
Both Cohn and Coringrato think the weekend’s performances will exceed all expectations.