The campus concert promised by Student Government President Martin Hursh and Vice President Quinn Margrett’s campaign has been postponed until the fall of 2025.
A free concert for students at Jack Trice Stadium was a primary campaign point for Hursh, a junior in economics, and Margrett, a junior in business economics.
In a Senate meeting in late February, the campus concert bill was proposed, detailing $150,000 from the special projects account to purchase 3,000 in “free and/or discounted” student tickets at Hilton Coliseum for a concert.
“This Campus Concert is slated to occur later this semester, with negotiations nearing completion with two platinum award winning artists to headline the event,” the bill states.
At the following Senate meeting, Hursh said details on the artists and performance dates will be announced “ASAP.”
In a press release sent to students March 25, Senior Associate Athletics Director Chris Jorgensen said “logistical delays,” caused the concert plans to be delayed to “this fall or next spring.”
“We got really close,” Jorgensen said in an interview with the Daily. “Our goal is to have this first concert partnered up with the Student Government this spring, but just frankly, ran out of time before graduation. We’ve continued discussions with that promoter and the acts that they represent, and are fairly confident we should be able to have a show booked this coming fall.”
Jorgensen said finding concerts to come to Hilton, with venues such as Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, is “a difficulty.” He also said working around the Hilton schedule is hard.
“Between the months of October and March, the building is pretty much 100% booked for all the different sports that compete in there,” Jorgensen said. “We have five sports that compete. So you lay down the challenge of finding an act, and then you have the scheduling challenges.”
Hursh said an additional logistical delay included riders, which are documents or checklists outlining the specific technical and hospitality requirements for performance.
“It can vary depending on how complex these riders are,” Hursh said. “It can take longer than expected to get information. There’s a lot of things that go into experiencing logistical problems.”
Hursh said the decision to push the concert back was made “pretty much right as the press release” was sent out.
“It’s 60 days industry standard from when you can market [the concert], to when the actual show date is, but anything after that, it’s just not going to be as successful,” Hursh said. “And our whole thing is too, we’re custodians of student dollars. We have the $150,000 Student Government bill that was passed for it. The worst thing that we could do is have a show that’s not quality.”
Jorgensen said he is “hopeful,” that by the end of the summer, an announcement will be made detailing the artist or date.
Not only are there plans to have the concert in the fall, but the press release also outlines an additional concert at Jack Trice Stadium in the spring of 2026.
“Our goal as the athletic department is really to bring in a couple of shows a year, one in the spring, one in the fall,” Jorgensen said.
