Photo of 2017’s WILD by Carrie Phillips.

CAPACITY OF ATTENDEES

The University’s semiannual concert, Walk In Lay Down (WILD), was canceled this semester following concerns over student safety at the event and the administration’s inability to find a solution for a late-in-the-game attendee capacity restriction from the University’s Emergency Management (EM) department.

Administrators received word on Sept. 30 from EM that, based on newly received guidelines from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the capacity for Brookings Quad could not exceed 3,500 people for the event. WILD has not previously had an attendee cap. 

Three days later, on Oct. 3, Campus Life administrators informed SPB of this new capacity limit.

According to administrators, WILD planners were unable to find a ticketing solution that would guarantee that only 3,500 people could gain entrance to Brookings Quad, largely due to how late in the planning process the EM department gave Campus Life notice of the NFPA guidelines.

SPB wrote in an email sent out by their President Miri Goodman that administrators told SPB that the limit on concertgoers was 3,000, and Goodman then negotiated that number up to 3,500, which was EM’s original cap based on NFPA guidelines. 

The 3,500 cap falls short of the 7,800 undergraduate population, which SPB and administrators both expressed a desire to be able to fully serve at WILD concerts. 

Between the time SPB received the order of a 3,500-person limit and the public announcement of WILD’s cancellation, SPB and administration met multiple times to explore solutions that would allow the concert to take place. 

“They came to us and said ‘we want you to try to [create] a ticketing system,’” Goodman said. SPB countered by telling administrators, “This is your rule, you’re the paid professionals, can you please [set up a] ticketing system — it was not within our scope.”

With that, Coordinator for Programming and Marketing at Campus Life Jasmine James set out to find a ticketing system that would control crowds.

“To be honest, we were a bit too close to the date of the show to implement something that would allow us to make sure that only WashU students were in the quad, and that the tickets couldn’t be replicated — that was a really big barrier,” she said. “We found one system, but it wasn’t secure enough. I think if we had a bit more time we could’ve gone that way.”

The University and SPB stressed that WILD has historically been accessible to every undergraduate student, so limiting the number of attendees raised concerns about equity and inclusivity. 

Freshman Cole Bernstein said WILD is advertised as one of the University’s main school-wide events, and that limiting attendance would defeat the point of the concert.

“I remember when WashU was sending all their promotional stuff to get us to apply, one of the big things was the ‘every semester concert,’” Bernstein said. “WILD was seemingly an inclusive thing.”

Dean of Students Rob Wild said that SPB was unwilling to help with figuring out a ticketing system because they did not want to limit the capacity of an event that is supposed to be open for all students. 

“The fact that we didn’t have a good ticket system is relevant,” Wild said. “But the bigger issue is that the students that we were working with were not interested in the tickets.” 

Goodman said that she would have supported holding the event even “If [ticketing] was the only option.” However, she added that the “rudimentary” system that administration was forming didn’t allow for the transfer or denial of tickets, and that there was no way to re-allocate forfeited tickets.

SPB and administrators also explored alternative locations as possible options for WILD to still take place. Mudd Field was proposed, but Assistant Director for Campus Life Peggy Hermes said that there were too many logistical issues to solve in time for this semester’s WILD.

“We probably are going to have to [use Mudd Field] for the Spring,” Wild said.

Additionally, the planners discussed moving the event to Nov. 11, but the chosen artist Swae Lee was not available for that day. 

CROWDING DILEMMA PRE-CAPACITY CONSTRAINT

Before news of the 3,500 person cap, SPB and administrators were already faced with mitigating issues surrounding overcrowding after a record-breaking attendance at the previous concert. 

Last semester’s WILD boasted an attendance of over 5,000 students, resulting in overcrowding inside Brookings Quad where WILD has been held since its inception in 1978. 

Following the event, Wild, along with other administrators and WUPD, met at a standing WashU Cares meeting on May 2. Wild and several others, including last year’s Interim Police Chief, stayed behind to discuss WILD-specific safety concerns.  

“We had a very high-level discussion about some of the things that we would need to have in place as we move towards fall WILD,” Wild said. “That’s where Jasmine and the team started work in the summer about some of those safety measures.”

Administrators attempted to come up with solutions for overcrowding prior to the cap put on attendance. At this point, they were looking to increase student safety without limiting how many people could attend the concert. 

“The advising staff from Campus Life had worked out what we believed were two good solutions to safety related to the crowd,” Wild said. “The ideas were a proposed redesign of the stage into a T-shape and increased security presence to decrease crowd crushing issues, especially near the stage.”

Before receiving the 3,500 capacity limit notice, Wild said they moved ahead with both of those solutions “in a way that I think was very productive and that all of us felt fairly comfortable with.”

DISCOURSE SURROUNDING EMAILS

Campus Life released their statement regarding the cancellation of WILD via an Instagram post on Oct. 14. SPB sent out an email responding to the cancellation of WILD and how they felt the administration had handled the event on Oct. 16.

SPB’s email heavily criticized both how the University handled their communication with the student body surrounding the cancellation of WILD, and their communication with SPB throughout the planning process.

In their email to the student body, SPB said that “[We] asked [the administration] to cut out certain paragraphs [in their email] due to their misleading natures, they did not.”

SPB confirmed with administrators that they did not want to sign on to Campus Life’s joint statement about WILD’s cancellation, although Hermes said that SPB saw the email three times throughout the week leading up to it being sent and had opportunities to request changes to its content.

Wild added that the administration made edits to the statement based on feedback from SPB. “We had no intention of putting any blame on SPB, ever.”

SPB’s email also asserted “[Goodman] was forbidden from disclosing this information [about WILD getting canceled] to anyone else, until an official statement was released” when she found out on Oct. 10th that the event was canceled, two days before Wild and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Dr. Anna Gonzales made the announcement to members of SPB.

When asked if the administration had told Goodman she was not allowed to tell people about the cancellation, Hermes said “That was not my understanding of how that conversation went.”

SPB also wrote in their email that “There was never any explanation provided for why the capacity was limited to 3,500 persons, yet we have had approximately 50 years of WILDs with more than that limit of attendees.” 

Wild said that out of the 40-50 WILDs he’s been to, last Spring’s concert was the most heavily attended, which created “pretty significant safety concerns with the front of the stage area.”

He said that “multiple people had to be pulled out for getting crushed … [and there were] some people who required some minor medical attention on site as a result.”

Additionally, student leaders included in their SPB email that “Jasmine James and Peggy Hermes [told Goodman on Oct. 10] that WILD was officially canceled for reasons of ‘student safety.’ Truthfully, it was due to the fact that the administration could not come up with solutions for their requirements for the event.”

The only requirement that administrators told Student Life they were unable to solve was the capacity limit that Emergency Management told them about on Sept. 30. 

All parties expressed hope for the success of spring WILD.

Despite the cancellation of fall WILD, Goodman said she hopes that the rollover of funds from the event will help SPB bring in an even more in demand artist for WILD next semester. 

“I’m committed to trying to help SPB … provide great opportunities for WILD and other activities,” Gonzales said. “My hope [for] students is that we’re going to have a WILD in the spring.”