Indie rock band St. Motel performs at the first-ever Night at the Pageant in November, 2023 (Zoe Oppenheimer | Student Life}.

Students can expect not one, but two headlining acts at this year’s Night at the Pageant (NAP), which will take place on Friday, Nov. 8, according to Vice President of Programming and Head of the Student Programming Board (SPB), Abby Sode. This shift in NAP programming is the result of a $25,000 increase in NAP’s talent budget, which was approved unanimously by Student Union (SU) Treasury on Sept. 3. 

NAP took place for the first time last year as a relaunch of Fall WILD, with the headliner being indie-rock band St. Motel. Originally, the budget was $75,000, and with this new bump in funding, the talent budget will total $100,000 this year. 

After last year’s NAP, 81% of 54 respondents to a Student Life survey said they enjoyed last year’s NAP, while some decided not to go.

Senior Ella Hyman went to NAP last year and said it was not only fun, but that the concert venue, the Pageant on Delmar Loop, was convenient for some upperclassmen.

“People were really excited about the band and [it] being so close,” Hyman said. “I lived in the lofts, and so it was so nice [that] everybody could walk there.”

Hyman told Student Life she knew one or two songs from last year’s headliners prior to NAP, but sophomore Dakota Bilyeu did not, which dissuaded her from going to the concert.

“I just mainly don’t really know the artists very well, and then I’d have to take the time to go listen to their music to see if I like it to go to [NAP],” Bilyeu said.

Bilyeu also said she did not know what NAP was until after the event.

“Just seeing the title [NAP] in my Outlook, I was like, ‘what?’” said Bilyeu. “[A]s a freshman, I had no idea what it was.”

In the new post-pandemic WashU, traditions such as WILD have dwindled, decreasing student engagement in campus-wide events. While campus-wide morale has impacted NAP, funding has as well. In February 2020, Fall WILD had a funding cut to set aside enough money for a bigger annual Spring WILD.

According to Vice President of Finance, Meris Damanjovic, this year’s increase in NAP’s talent budget should not impact Spring WILD, as the additional funds are coming from unspent money from last year’s Student Programming Budget.

Damanjovic hopes this monetary change will increase student engagement in NAP.

“It’s putting us into that new tier of talent, getting people engaged,” Damanjovic said. “If that means a $25,000 increase[…]then that’s what we’ll do.”