Student society approves budget for fall kickoff concert

The Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) Board of Directors unanimously approved the budget for this year’s fall kickoff concert currently scheduled to take place on September 22. It is the sixth concert hosted by the SFSS and the largest event the society organizes all year.

The estimated cost of the event is $111,400 and the expected revenue is $97,000, leaving a forecast $14,400 loss, according to the budget submitted by vice-president student life Alam Khehra at the June 5 board meeting.

“It’s a very conservative budget, we are hoping everything is like this,” Khehra said in response to some board members who expressed concerns about the decreased budget for the after-party and event promotion this time around.

“I think a big thing that [Khehra] worked on was coming up with an event that was going to be able to deliver on the amount of service that we’ve delivered in the past few years, but also maintain the costs at a reasonable level for students,” SFU President Hangue Kim explained to the board.

“The money has to be cut from somewhere and we didn’t want to raise the ticket prices for students because we wanted to keep it at a reasonable range.”

Last year the total cost of the event was $112,198 and, once revenue from ticket sales was factored in, it ran a $24,777 loss.

The SFSS is hopeful that they can decrease the loss this year by increasing sponsorship.

This year, the society is aiming to attract 2,000 attendees to the event and a sold out after-party of 300. The planning committee is intending to hold the after-party in the Highland Pub.

The numbers of students attending these events is growing each year, Kim noted.

Board members Jimmy Dhesa, Aarushi Sharma, and Juvina Silvestre were not present for the vote to approve the budget.