This fall, first-year students won’t be crowding Miller Hall’s lot for a surprise show.
The Orientation Mystery Concert, a long-standing event featuring a surprise headliner exclusively for incoming first-year students, has been removed from this year’s orientation schedule. Past years have included headliners such as Yung Gravy, Marianas Trench, and, most recently, DJ Dillon Francis. The event was reassigned to the Campus Affairs Commission (CAC) during the January AMS Assembly and was originally set to be restructured into a non-mystery style concert.
At the assembly, previous 2024-25 Vice-President (University Affairs), Ruth Osunde, justified the a switch from the Orientation Roundtable (ORT) portfolio to the Campus Affairs Commission (CAC) after a survey allegedly indicated first-year students viewed the event as costly and preferred larger performers. The Journal was denied a copy of the survey results to verify the AMS’s findings. This survey prompted the change to move the concert outside of ORT’s responsibility, with the idea of offering it to more than just first-year students
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In an interview with The Journal, President Jana Amer and ORT Coordinator Ali Haider—soon to be replaced by Jonathan Shenouda as ORT Coordinator following Haider’s resignation—explained why the concert won’t be taking place this year.
“Having it happen during the orientation period was something that raised a lot of alarm bells for the University,” Amer said. “It kind of came down to the University, just not allowing space on campus to allow for the mystery concert or [provide us] insurance to sanction the mystery concert. So that really put us in a position where our hands were tied.”
In a statement to The Journal, the University said the decision to cancel the concert was made “jointly” with the AMS. “In 2024, the University and the 2024-2025 AMS and ORT executive teams engaged in a series of collaborative discussions about ongoing safety concerns with the ORT Mystery Concert. Jointly, the two groups determined it wasn’t possible to mitigate the risks associated with this event,” the University added.
The University explained that another event will take place in the concert’s absence.
“This year, we’re [the University] excited to feature a Friday night football game as part of Fall Orientation. On Friday, September 5, 2025, Queen’s and Laurier will face off in one of the first football games of the season. This game will feature first-year specific programming, and serve as an introduction to Queen’s spirit, tradition, and the Gaels community,” the University wrote.
Amer later clarified what kind of issues were taken with the concert, pointing out reports to the Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Services (SVPRS).
“I think there was a lot of worry about just the kinds of things that would happen within a concert, mainly an open floor concert, […] and previous incidents that have been reported to the SVPRS,” she said.
Haider also explained that incoming first-year students have received schedules indicating the concert will no longer be taking place.
“First-year students are fully aware [of the change], we have a lot of schedules going out. Each of the faculties have their own individual events that they run, but then they’re also aware of the university wide events that take place, so they know that a concert will not be taking place” Haider said.
After the interview, The Journal followed up to determine whether the removal of the concert has been explicitly communicated to first-year students, or if it’s been implied to students through its removal from the schedule. Despite the request, The Journal didn’t receive a clear answer.
Moving forward, Amer expressed that the AMS is still planning on running a concert by the CAC in upcoming years. While she couldn’t offer specific details, explaining it’s still in the planning phases, Amer explained the goal is to run a concert after the two-week orientation period but within the fall months.
As for why a concert couldn’t be run by the CAC this year, Amer explained there simply wasn’t enough time following its move into the commission in January.
“They [the Vice-President (University Affairs) and CAC] are in the process of putting the groundwork [to run a concert]. Considering the way the turnover worked and when the concert was moved out, that’s usually something that there is a whole director role that would work on, starting the concert from the second that they’re hired all the way until [orientation]. So, it just that we don’t have the time or money, unfortunately, to ensure we can run this,” Amer said.
The 2025-26 orientation period will span from Saturday, Aug. 31, until Sunday, Sept. 8.
Tags
First Year in Focus, Mystery Concert, ORT mystery Concert
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