Welcome Week officially began Aug. 16, and includes events such as CultureFest, RecFest and the IU Block Party. While the Block Party is usually a popular event for incoming students, this year the concert sold out for the first time by selling 6,000 tickets total.
This year the IU Block Party includes performances by official Indiana Pacers DJ Niko Flores, DJ Craze and Four Color Zack, rapper/singer Post Malone and DJ/producer RL Grime.
The Union Board is one of three sponsors for the event, in addition to Residential Programs and Services and the Residence Hall Association. Union Board President Josh Thomas said each year Union Board and the other sponsors have the responsibility to provide a lineup of performers who are current and exciting to students.
“IU has a smart music audience,” Thomas said. “This makes it imperative to bring relevant, up-and-coming artists to campus. Our partnership with RPS and the Residence Hall Association is what allows us to create lineups of artists that students love year after year.”
In previous years, the IU Block Party has had performers such as electronic musician Zhu and rapper B.o.B.
The work to find well-known artists each year begins with people like Union Board’s Director of Music Mark Matsuki.
Matsuki, a junior, said finding out what music and artists are resonating with students starts with his own form of research as a DJ.
“I actually DJ a lot around here in Bloomington and around the country at a lot of different night clubs, festivals and I actually performed at last year's block party as one of the acts,” Matsuki said. “So that gave me a lot of perspective as to what it is that people are listening to. It gives me the ear to the ground to get an idea of what people are interested in.”
The search for popular, up-and-coming artists begins in the same way students are discovering music — on Spotify. Matsuki said that brainstorming potential artists comes from those who are charting on Spotify and the radio. From there he said the next step is see what’s possible.
“It never happens the way you intended it to happen off the gate," Matsuki said. "We were actually in talks with a lot of different artists as far back as February of this past year, so that’s between six or seven months in advance. We started off with one artist and then that didn’t work out, then it goes to your A and your B and your C, D, E, F options, but you really want to make sure it comes out just right.”
Matsuki said Post Malone is the artist he is the most excited about.
“I know a lot of students are really excited about him as well,” Matsuki said. “His radio single has been charting like crazy, same thing on Spotify.”
IU is not the only school acquiring big acts for its welcome week concert. According to Ohio State's student newspaper, the Lantern, Zedd will be performing at the university's welcome week concert and Wiz Khalifa is performing at the University of Mississippi, according to its website.
"For us as a whole it's our responsibility to really put together something that gets students excited about what's happening on campus and continues to put us on a national radar," Matsuki said. "The goal each year is to get bigger and better. We're going to bring acts that continue to resonate with our student body and continues to build out year after year."
