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Tensions are beginning to heat up between activities organizers, audiences and musicians, as Music Outlet — a Snow Recital Hall-based music program — continues its third consecutive week in the Kirkham Auditorium.
The idea to move the program to the Kirkham Auditorium came from Music Activities Chairman Mandy Schalk, a sophomore from Plano, Texas. Schalk based the decision upon the enormous increase in attendance and a determination to fulfill the Activities Council goal of including everyone.
“Change happens, you just have to go with it … the goal of the program is more important than the room that it is in,” Schalk said.
Schalk also said the Snow Recital Hall only holds 180 people, which is a fire code violation and far less seating than is needed for the average attendance of 250 people or more.
However, Tanner Warnick, a senior from Columbus, Ind., creator and former chairman of Music Outlet, has seen the program grow over its two years at BYU-Idaho and disagrees with the current decision to move it.
Warnick began the program to allow all musicians the chance to showcase their musical talent in an intimate setting, especially those who didn’t have the opportunity to play at Guitars Unplugged or Acoustic Café. If the move to the Kirkham is allowed to become permanent, Warnick said the program will lose the intimacy and sound quality it once had.
“We’re compromising on quality in the Kirkham,“ Warnick said. “[The Activities Council is] not taking into account the good the program has done and what it’s about, but using it as a way to push their agenda.”
Brian Osborne, a senior from Rexburg, voiced regret, but also acknowledged the difficulty of losing spectators.
“It’s too bad we had to do it [in the Kirkham], but it’s hard to turn away people,” Osborne said.
The option of holding Music Outlet in the Barrus Concert Hall was also explored; however, due to the university’s strict policy of what can be played within the concert hall, the option was quickly dropped.
