Radio festival pushes the limits
Saturday night, students, community members and bands will gather in the amphitheater on Old Main hill to bond over music and a good time, said Jordan Allred, a USU senior and station manager for Aggie Radio.
The music festival is being hosted by Aggie Radio and is the first since the band Love You Long Time came to USU two years ago, he said.
“We’re learning that none of us have really done anything like this before,” Allred said.
The idea for a music festival came from Anike Pullens, USU student and a movie reviewer for The Statesman, who said she likes the genre of music that will be showcased and wanted to share it.
“The music will have that indie, alternative rock kind of feel,” Pullens said. “There’s a big group of people who listen to and like that kind of music here at USU.”
The reason the genre was picked, Pullens said, was because it was different from other events, like the Aggie Fest with Sean Kingston.
“It’s a different feel than the top 40s scene so it will bring in different people and it’s family friendly and we have a lot of hipsters,” she said.
The event has been put together in a little over a month. Allred said Pullens contacted the bands almost as soon as the idea was finalized.
“We sat down and brainstormed the ideas for the bands, contacted them and all of them said yes,” he said.
Pullens said the bands were all local, and she contacted most of them herself because she knew members or had been to performances before.
Allred said he liked the idea of the music festival when it was brought up because it gives the radio station publicity and it’s also a fun activity that’s free and open to the public.
“We will never charge for our events, because we’re here to do stuff for the students,” Allred said. “The only time we would is if we brought someone really big.”
The way this can happen is if sponsors donate food and other things to the event. The bands that are coming need to be fed and he said he’s hoping that the local businesses will help out.
“We’re not even paying the bands to do this,” Allred said. “The only money we’re putting out for bands is to pay for the travel fees of one band and we’ve completely undersold them. We’re getting a bargain.”
Logan City Limits was the name coined by the Independent Music club, also involved in the festival. President of the club Amy Nguyen said the club is helping spread the word about the event and reaches about 400 members.
Nguyen is a junior in anthropology and is playing in the festival.
“I’m really looking forward to playing outdoors, it’s my favorite thing,” Nguyen said.
Allred said since Aggie Radio has finalized who is coming, they have received calls everyday about the event from bands asking to come play at the event, so the group has decided to hold another festival in the fall.
“The festival in the fall will be more of a festival,” Allred said. “There will be more bands, and hopefully an even bigger crowd. We are already planning it.”
Pullens said the group is hoping to hold the festival in September or early October because the weather is still nice outside, rather than the unknown weather in April.
“We still aren’t sure if it’s going to be good weather, and that’s one of the reasons we want to do it in the fall while it’s still warm out,” she said.
The festival this fall is also planned to have more types of music, and will branch out from pure “hipster” music and will include folksy music, acoustic and even some pop, Pullens said.
Saturday’s event is from 4-9 p.m. and will be held in the amphitheater if weather permits. In case of rain or stormy weather, the festival will be held in the TSC auditorium, located on the east side of the second floor.
– april.ashland@aggiemail.usu.edu