Logan City Limits music festival to be streamed online
For the past decade, the Logan City Limits music festival hosted by Aggie Radio has been a spring staple for Utah State University and Logan, Utah’s music scene. The 2020 festival to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the annual weekend of music was set to be bigger and better than ever before.
Aggie Radio’s events team, led by sophomore Sierra Benson, had planned to combine the festival with the Utah State University Student Association’s End of Year Bash to create a truly spectacular event.
But as the COVID-19 pandemic became more of a reality for USU students, Aggie Radio’s leadership realized despite months of planning, an insane passion for events and pouring their hearts and souls into this festival, 2020’s Logan City Limits would be canceled.
At the end of March, however, the team got the green light to produce something never done before in all of USU history: an entire three-day music festival condensed into one livestream.
“The hardest part is that our events team, led by Sierra Benson, has been preparing for what would have been the largest Logan City Limits festival since August,” said Aggie Radio’s station manager Brandon Ellis. “They’ve put a lot of time in organizing, finding bands and collaborating with a lot of campus and community entities. We’ve had to throw away most of that and completely switch gears to something brand new and different. That isn’t easy, but if anyone can do it, it’s Aggie Radio.”
Sierra Benson, the events director for the station, said the shift in format has been difficult emotionally as well as operationally.
“I had been planning this Logan City Limits for five months, pulling out all the stops, since this was our 10 year anniversary,” Benson said. “Coming to the realization that I would never see that hard work come to fruition was one of the hardest parts about turning to a livestream. Operationally, I had to start over, making a small event lineup in the space of around four days so that we could get filming started the same week.”
Due to travel restrictions, several of the bands originally set to play the festival can’t participate in the livestream. However, the Logan music scene pulled through to support Aggie Radio in this effort. The lineup is still tentative, but it includes local favorites like SorryMom, Ugly Boys, Guava Tree and Iris Isadora.
This year, Aggie Radio has started a new project: the Blue Light Media video team, led by Austin Roundy and Klaus VanZanten. Focusing on and developing this new division of Student Media has been preparing them for the huge undertaking of a project like this.
“What we might not have realized is that we were practicing, in a way, for a much larger project: the Logan City Limits livestream,” Ellis said.
Aggie Radio has never been faced with a challenge like this before. But the students of the media group are facing it with their characteristic optimism and drive, and are working to create something that will be truly unforgettable.
“There are opportunities that can rise from drastic change. It’s up to us to hone in on those opportunities and make the best of them,” Benson said. “We have learned that we have the capability to rally around a concept and make it into a reality in less than a week. Most organizations don’t have the luxury of [that].”
Benson also said the pandemic is making students more aware of the community environment fostered by USU.
“I think we have all learned to hold the friends we make in college a little more dear to our heart,” she said. “Sometimes we take for granted that college is so fleeting. This pandemic has helped us realize the things in life that matter most to us. I’m happy to see that for many, Utah State is one of them.”
Logan City Limits will be livestreamed on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram Live @aggieradio on April 17 at 7 p.m. MDT.
@maggiemattinson
Editor’s Note: Maggie Mattinson also works as Aggie Radio’s Programming Director.