More than 20 artists will perform within three hours and 10 minutes following His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s speech on Tuesday night at the One World Concert.

The concert is a part of “Common Ground for Peace,” a two-day forum that will be held at Syracuse University on Oct. 8-9. The concert will take place at the Carrier Dome from 7-11 p.m., and will begin with a 50-minute speech by the Dalai Lama, according to the One World Concert website.

Every musical artist will perform at least one song, and some are collaborating as groups or duets, according to the website.

The concert setup will utilize half of the Carrier Dome’s seating with the stage in the middle of the field, according to the Ticketmaster website.

“I’m expecting my seat, as a student, to be similar to other Dome events that students have tickets to,” said Scott Kevy, a sophomore sport management major. “I expect it to be more similar to the basketball, football student seating.”

The concert will host diverse artists and include performances from different genres and decades. The list of scheduled artists includes Dave Matthews, Swizz Beatz, Natasha Bedingfield, Nelly Furtado, Counting Crows, Phillip Phillips, Andy Grammer and Nas, among others. Whoopi Goldberg will emcee the event.

But the four-hour event won’t bother Kevy.

“I think that the four hours won’t feel as long as it seems because the music will change throughout,” Kevy said. “The music won’t all sound the same, so it should make the pace of the concert go faster.”

Kevy said he is most excited to see Dave Matthews, but said he recognized three-fourths of the artists on the list.

“I’m really excited for Nas, Swizz Beatz and Whoopi Goldberg,” said Liz Hess, a senior public relations major. “I am not that excited for Natasha Bedingfield.”

But others, such as Alex Feigenbaum, a first-year law student at SU’s College of Law, are not interested in the music at all.

“Since it’s in the middle of the week, I think I’m going to see the Dalai Lama talk, which is the person I’m the most interested in,” he said. “Then, honestly, I’m thinking about leaving.”

He said there were no artists he specifically wanted to see, so he didn’t feel the need to stay for the concert’s duration.

“Maybe I’ll stay for a little, but I can take it or leave it,” Feigenbaum said.

As of Sunday evening, the concert was not sold out and tickets were still available on Ticketmaster.

“I’m really excited to see such a diverse group of artists come together,” said Allyssa Kaiser, a senior advertising major. “It is going to be a good show.”

Published on October 8, 2012 at 12:22 am

Contact Jen: jbundy@syr.edu