Marshmello, D.R.A.M. to perform at Homecoming Concert

Update, 12:58 p.m., Oct. 11, 2016: Quotes from Blake Hawthorne and information about obtaining tickets and past Homecoming Concerts were added.

Update, 9:45 a.m., Oct. 13, 2016: Details about general admission and floor access were added for clarity.

This year’s Homecoming Concert will feature EDM producer and D.J. Marshmello as the headlining act and hip-hop recording artist D.R.A.M. as the opening act, as announced by Hurricane Productions (HP) at 12:15 p.m. on Tuesday in a video on the HP Concerts Facebook page.

The concert will be held on Thursday, Nov. 3 from 7-11 p.m. It will be in what was previously the BankUnited Center, which will soon be called the Watsco Center, according to the The Miami Herald. The venue is located on the University of Miami Coral Gables campus.

“Artist selection is a combination of polling the student body, releasing surveys to the student body, and the committee as a whole following artist trends,” said Blake Hawthorne, the chairman of the HP Productions committee, in an interview with The Miami Hurricane before the announcement.

“Our main goal is to follow trends because we know a lot about the industry, and we have pretty good insights into when an artist is up-and-coming. The best thing we can do is have the ability to snag an artist before they blow up,” Hawthorne said.

As a result of HP’s social media presence and promotions, Hawthorne said that the attendance of the Homecoming Concert went up from approximately 1,700 hundred students in previous years to approximately 4,000 students in attendance at last year’s concert, which featured rappers Waka Flocka Flame and T-Pain.

“We’re expecting even larger numbers this year,” Hawthorne said. “One of the pieces of feedback we got from students was to get more relevant artists. That definitely can’t be a complaint this year.”

Obtaining tickets to the concert will be the same for UM students as it was last year. General admission tickets are first-come, first-serve, and the first 1,500 students to arrive at the venue will be given floor access, though students can choose to sit in seats if they wish.

Hawthorne encourages students to keep up with HP’s social media pages. Students can win prizes and special types of tickets, one of which is a reserved floor pass, which will guarantee students floor admission at the concert so they don’t have to wait in line beforehand.

HP also gives away meet-and-greet passes and a boxed-seating package called the “HP V.I.P. Experience,” in which students can go with a plus-one to watch the show from the boxed suite, eat catered food and have the meet-and-greet experience after the show. To be entered to win the “HP V.I.P. Experience,” Hawthorne said students should share HP Concert’s announcement video on their Facebook profiles and tag two friends in the post.

For more information on this year’s Homecoming Concert, visit the HP website or HP Concert’s Facebook page.

Featured photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.