With the uncertainties of COVID-19, the University of North Alabama has had to cancel the annual Spring Concert since spring of 2020. Fortunately, the university is able to provide the event this year, and many students who had to miss the past concerts are greatly anticipating this year ’s. The event will be held Thursday, April 14 and will be free to all UNA students. Non-students can pay for tickets once they go live on the UPC website.

The spring concert is a big production held by the University Program Council in Flowers Hall with a special performer who represents the most-voted music genre on the Homecoming Court Election ballot. The aspect of live music on campus makes this event very popular and an exciting way to end the academic year for the student body at UNA.

Parker Leigh Fleming, the productions promoter for UPC, has been working hard planning the Spring Concert with Rebecca “Becca” Bush, the student activities coordinator, since September. A lot of work goes into the process of choosing a performer who is inclusive and pleasing for students.

“It’s something that the students in the past have always looked forward to,” Fleming says.

“We spent a lot of time figuring out who we wanted. A lot of details that we weren’t expecting to keep changing were fluctuating so fast. So that was definitely the most challenging part, trying to get all the details worked out to where everything fell into place,” Fleming says.

“We spent a lot of time figuring out who we wanted. A lot of details that we weren’t expecting to keep changing were fluctuating so fast. So that was definitely the most challenging part, trying to get all the details worked out to where everything fell into place,” Fleming says.

“I think we can definitely be expecting a larger presence on campus this year with a very large turnout with students. I think we picked a very very good performer. I think that we really tried to stay true to what students were asking and who students wanted to see. We’re very intentional in trying to think of a diverse population of students and not just what one group of students would want to see,” Fleming said when asked what to expect this year, for the first concert since 2019.

As of late, a lot of buzz has been going around campus as to who the performer will be. The concert of 2019 was headlined by country singer and Alabama-born Riley Green, who is popular for his song “There Was This Girl.” The concert planned for 2020 was supposed to headline Blackbear but was canceled because of the pandemic.

“It’s definitely been odd [keeping the secret]. It’s been kind of cool just knowing who it is, and it’s been weird even keeping it from my closest friends and my roommates and stuff like that, but I’m also super excited for them to be excited and especially when we get to announce it. I don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone else, anyways,” Fleming says.

The performer will be announced the second night of Step Sing close to the award ceremony. Step Sing takes place on February 4th and 5th and tickets are being sold by UPC online.