Due to unexpected circumstances, Grand Valley State University’s Spotlight Productions will not be holding the annual spring concert for 2017.

Spotlight Productions president Kyle Cronin said the original plan was to eliminate the annual homecoming show and refocus the budget to allow for a larger spring concert. However, the team tweeted Monday, March 27, a statement disclosing the concert Spotlight was working for will not be attainable this year.

The statement said: “While Spotlight accomplished all the planning necessary to make this show happen, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to bring you the spring concert we were all expecting.”

When asked for further details, Cronin said an artist was selected but problems arose with the contract later on, and as a result, a backup artist was not an option.  Currently, both student senate and the Office of Student Life are working to decide the fate of the left over funds that would have supported the concert. 

“We did all planning necessary to bring an artist to campus, and were in contact with the performer we selected,” he said. “Despite our preparation, we ran into problems with the contract late in the planning process, and so were unable to secure our second option in time.”

Kathryn Mulcahy, vice president for Spotlight, said the team worked to their fullest ability and worked the best they could to avoid this outcome. In agreement, Cronin said there was no way Spotlight members could have predicted the concert’s cancellation.

“We didn’t think this would happen, there was no way we could see this happening,” he said.

For 2016-17, Cronin said Spotlight’s overall budget allocated by student senate was decreased by $10,000. Eliminating the homecoming concert was intended to divide these costs and increase funds for the spring concert.

In the future, Cronin said the team still plans to increase programming on campus. For 2017-18, Spotlight recently received a $20,000 increase from student senate. 

“We are very pleased with our budget increase and know that the incoming Spotlight executive board will do great things with programming, of both small and large scale in the upcoming year,” he said.

However, Spotlight members have not decided yet whether they will feature a homecoming show for 2018. 

“We have not decided whether or not we will have a homecoming show next year, we haven’t talked about it yet,” he said. “We are hopeful for the next spring show, we will make it happen.”

For now, both Mulcahy and Cronin are focused on training the new executive board and team members for 2017-18. The members, Mulcahy said, are currently preparing to take on the next year.

“We just finalized our executive board last week, so now we are in that transition period,” Mulcahy said. “Now to the end of the year, the previous position holder is training the new one. It’ll be a smooth transition.”

With the recent schedule changes, Cronin said the Spotlight team is remaining positive and are excited to finish the year with the “ExtravaGRANDza” event, which is in coordination with the Laker Traditions Team.

The event was recently created to help celebrate GVSU spirit and celebrate the motto “Lakers for a Lifetime.” Activities will take place all day from Monday, April 17, to Friday, April 28.

“We’re trying to keep it positive,” he said. “We are really looking forward to this celebration at the end of the year.”