By
Maya Schechter
Arizona Daily Wildcat
ASUA pays for concert with help from UA organizations
CatFest 2000, costing nearly $35,000, was almost put to an end Friday night when bad weather tried to scare away Sister Hazel and their fans, but unlike last year, event organizers were prepared for the challenge.
Last year's CatFest was canceled due to the same bad weather, so Associated Students of the University of Arizona learned from its mistakes and reserved a room in case the Sister Hazel concert would have to be held indoors, said Erick Negri, ASUA executive vice president.
"My greatest fears were faced by the weather, but with the team effort of the (Sister Hazel) band and the CatFest staff, it ended up being so great," said Ben Graff, ASUA president.
Sister Hazel's concert was interrupted by the lightening and rain, but Graff said the band members were so upset by having to stop, that they arranged for their concert to continue in the Memorial Student Union Arizona Ballroom.
"I have never seen or heard of anything like this before, most bands wouldn't have done that," Graff said.
More than 500 fans followed Sister Hazel into the Arizona Ballroom and sat through an hour of live acoustic music.
When the music stopped, nearly 200 people stayed in the room to get the band's autographs, and the band members did not leave until every autograph was signed, said Graff.
"Everyone I talked to had a great time," Negri said.
ASUA had been planning CatFest for more than four months in arranging for the band, finding sponsors and working with the committee in order to provide the best experience for the student body, Graff said.
When planning for CatFest began, Sen. Danielle Roberts said that ASUA realized that Sister Hazel was out of their budget range, and began looking elsewhere for other bands.
However, only a month ago, Graff was able to contact the band's manager and convince him to lower the price since the concert was going to be free for the students.
Roberts said that Kamp Radio, University Activities Board, Greek Life and the Residence Hall Association gave money to help ASUA pay for CatFest.
"They didn't just help us with money, but they also helped with their time and effort," Roberts said.
Roberts, who took over the job of the special events chair when the position opened up over the summer, said that while ASUA senators usually don't get as involved, she was really glad she was able to help.
"I put so much into CatFest, that I would have cried if it would have been tanked," Roberts said.
CatFest's activities also included a club fair, where 65 UA clubs had a table on the UA Mall to recruit students and a fashion show, where UA students modeled clothing donated by Divaz and Landmark.
