Hellogoodbye Announced as Winterfest Performers

By HARRY HUGGINS

Hellogoodbye during MyCokeFest at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta in 2007. (By Daniel Mayer, via Wikimedia Commons)

Fordham College at Lincoln Center’s (FCLC) Campus Activities Board (CAB) announced Friday that the band Hellogoodbye would be the performers for this year’s inaugural Winterfest concert. As part of CAB’s Hurricane Sandy relief fundraiser, Anna Nyzio, CAB treasurer and CAB Winterfest committee chairperson, introduced a video in which the committee members revealed Hellogoodbye to be the band FCLC students’ selected to perform at the Nov. 30 concert in Pope Auditorium.

CAB president and member of the CAB Winterfest committee Brian Cipollina, FCLC ’14, said that the decision on the artist was made based on surveys conducted during last spring’s Midnight Breakfast at FCLC, after which the CAB Winterfest committee contacted the performers to set up the concert.

“Britney Spears was our first choice, but she was a little busy that night,” Cipollina joked.

Once they booked Hellogoodbye, the committee members kept the information secret until the night of CAB’s Hurricane Sandy relief fundraiser.

After the hurricane cancelled CAB’s Halloween party, at which they originally planned to announce the artist, Cipollina said they redirected all of their funds to organize a relief party to solicit donations toward the university’s relief fund and collect donations of non-perishable foods and winter clothing.

“We wanted to tell Sandy that we’re not going to take her rudeness,” Cipollina said.

Jaime Rodriguez, FCLC ’14, explained at the event the Dorothy Day Center for Service and Justice’s response to Hurricane Sandy. They will be selling Tshirts to raise funds for buying goods for those affected by the storm and collecting nonperishable foods and winter clothing throughout the next few weeks.

Just a few moments later, Nyzio introduced the video revealing the Winterfest artist.

According to Cipollina, a high student response to CAB’s call for volunteers for the event was an indicator that the student body is very excited for this concert.

“It’s really exciting that they’re coming,” Nina Markesinis, FCLC ’15 said, “they’re a great band.”

“I’m excited because it’s Lincoln Center’s first concert and it’s my senior year,” Christina Markesinis, FCLC ’13, said, although she admitted that she only knew the band’s most famous song: “Here (In Your Arms).”

Cipollina said he is looking forward to seeing them mostly because of their upbeat, danceable music.

Students will be able to pick up free tickets for the concert on Monday, Nov. 12, Tuesday, Nov. 13 and Wednesday, Nov. 14 in the Lowenstein Lobby, and tickets for guests will be available on Thursday and Friday of that week.

Besides the Nov. 30 concert, Winterfest will also include a “jam session” of Fordham talent on Nov. 29 and a trip to “Rock of Ages” on Broadway on Nov. 27. “We want there to be a rock feel in the air at Fordham,” Cipolliana said.