Bloomapalooza, planned by the Program Liaisons, is their premiere music festival. Junior Ben Gayda proposed the event to the organization, which provides programming and promotes campus events that cater to student interests.
Sophomore Dylan Walker said the concert provides an alternative activity during Little 500 week.
Gayda said the festival was designed to give students living on campus a chance to catch the local music scene without having to look too far.
“We’re definitely focusing on the festival aspect,” Gayda said, referring to the atmosphere they hope to create outside Union Street Center. “Obviously the music comes first for that, but there’s a lot of other stuff that goes into it, too.”
Aside from the concert, he said there will be tailgate games set up and beach balls tossed.
As the PL programming manager, Gayda said he was in charge of booking the bands for Bloomapalooza, which he said sets this campus music festival apart from others.
“We’re focusing entirely on local bands,” he said. “When people come out to our show and see them at Bloomapalooza, then they can go take that and see them at whatever house or club they’re playing at next weekend. It builds a kind of familiarity with them.”
The lineup includes the bands 800 lb. Gorilla, The Abbey Normals, Shotgun Genome, Before the Streetlights, The Tourniquets and The Breakes. Gayda said each band will play a 30-minute set.
Gayda said he hand-selected local bands he saw were popular in the community, but many other interested bands contacted them in hopes for a spot after the overwhelming response to the music festival.
Walker, the PL marketing manager, said he was in charge of promoting Bloomapalooza on media platforms such as Facebook.
Within three days of posting the event on Facebook, he said they had 1,000 RSVPs. The event is now up to 1,500 RSVPs. Although they would like to invite all of the bands to perform, Gayda said, their time and location limit the number.
“Unfortunately, there’s only so much time. Since we’re doing it in the middle of apartments on a Monday night, we can’t have it going until 2 a.m.,” Gayda said.
However, Walker said, “There’s definitely an opportunity for expansion next year.”
They were initially planning for a small-scale barbecue and concert, Walker said, but the event has grown beyond what they expected. Gayda said they only expected up to 150 students before they started promoting it.
“It kind of exploded in the past two weeks,” Walker said. “There was definitely a demand for this.”
Walker said the Program Liaisons work to serve all campus residents.
“Our year has culminated into this,” Walker said. “We’ve done some small programs. ... This is looking to be by far the biggest.”
Since joining the Liaisons, Gayda said he has wanted to organize a music festival and hopes to pursue a career in music management or booking after ?college.
“For me, it’s just really exciting to see it all come together,” he said. “And hopefully 1.5 thousand people show up.”
