IU Program Liaisons hosted the first annual Bloomapalooza music festival, featuring six different local bands, to kick off Little 500 week.
The local bands featured at Monday’s event were The Breakes, Sunspots, Before the Streetlights, ShotgunGenome, The Abbey-Normals and 800 lb Gorilla.
Program Liaisons is an IU-sponsored group aimed at engaging students within a large university. Program Liaisons allows any club or organization, on or off campus, to advertise events with them in an effort to lessen the feel of the large school size.
Looking for an alternative, alcohol-free activity for students to enjoy, IU Junior Ben Gayda decided to bring his interests of the music industry to build a program for part of the usually crazy party week.
“It was a combination between personal preference and collaboration with the rest of the team,” Gayda said.
Gayda serves as the program manager for Program Liasons. The group is made up of members that meet on a regular basis for a roundtable discussion to formulate ideas for programs and events to have around campus.
At the beginning of the year, the group met to create a schedule that lasted until finals of spring semester. Ideas for events are mostly based off personal preference of members of the group.
“I decided to live on campus again and wanted to get experience with event planning,” said Lydia Coppedge, IU sophomore and member of the ?program team.
There are three different types of positions: social media, marketing and programming. All students living on campus are welcome to apply. Applications are currently open until May 1.
In the past, Program Liasions hosted programs such as Sex Week, a week devoted to promoting safe sex initiatives in a fun, interactive way throughout campus.
Funded by Residential Programs and Services, the event had both an educational and social focus.
“We are trying to engage the community in an entertaining way,” said Erin Hensley, RPS graduate supervisor for academic initiatives.
Participants included students of all ages, including a balance of residents of Union Street Center, residents of other dorms and off-campus ?students.
“I’m most excited to see it all come together,” Gayda said. “It’s really cool to see everyone excited about it after two months of planning.”
In addition to the free entertainment, hamburgers and snacks were also served to all participants. Some even played rounds of corn hole in the background, behind the stage area.
Looking to kick off the weekday festivities, IU senior Katie Maibach and friends came to enjoy a relaxing way to start the week.
“This event allows connecting with some old friends and enjoying local ?talent at the same time,” Maibach said.
She said she believes the event played very well into Little 500 in a somewhat nostalgic way, especially from her perspective as a senior.
The event went from 5:30 to 10 p.m. with more than 700 people visiting throughout. The turnout exceeded expectations with Program Liaisons initially planning to gather only around 150 participants.
