A backstage take a look at AubFest

Auburn’s personal DIY music competition AubFest had its seventh profitable version on Oct. 3 to five, uniting the group with good music carried out by regional bands. Starting as a easy thought by an Auburn University pupil, Ashley Spencer, the competition is now a non-profit 501(c)(3) and has rapidly blossomed into an occasion that everybody appears to be like ahead to twice a yr. While most attendees see it as a enjoyable music competition to get pleasure from, many don’t understand the quantity of arduous work put into it by so many Auburn University college students.

AubFest is now run by three present college students: Riley Dimon, Aiden-Calderon Wyant and Carter Zane. Although there are solely three of them, the completed product of AubFest is really spectacular. This yr, there have been over 30 native and regional bands that carried out.

Dimon, AubFest managing director, defined that it takes 5 months to plan and put the occasion collectively, together with reserving bands and performers.

“This time, we had three people,” Dimon mentioned. “The work is as much as we put into it. In a way, the workload never changes. We can always anticipate and expect how much work we’re putting into it.”

One of the volunteers in control of reserving is Sally Little, a senior in industrial music. She researches bands, sometimes underrepresented performers, and reaches out to get them to carry out.

“The spirit of AubFest is DIY,” Little mentioned. “It’s to encourage local artists and let them know, ‘Hey, there’s a platform for you, like, here in your backyard.’”

The administrators take a look at bands of all types of genres, together with indie, pop and R&B, and see which bands will draw essentially the most power from the group. One of Little’s objectives is to seek out bands that preserve the power excessive and ensure it flows with the opposite performances.

Although the administrators are an enormous a part of the planning, they depend on many volunteers to assist run the occasion easily. With their group of volunteers assigned to jobs, corresponding to greeting, sound checking, stage managing, pictures and promoting merch, AubFest turns into the spectacular show of music each attendee sees.

One of the various necessary jobs are the stage assistants who make certain each performer is able to go on time. Varun Viswanathan, a graduate pupil in electrical engineering, was a first-time stage assistant for AubFest this previous October.

During the competition, Viswanathan would guarantee that each performer arrange their gear and arrived to stage on time. He then helped them take down their gear and get the stage prepared for the following band. His position was important in ensuring each act remained on schedule.

“You gotta be on your toes all the time just to make sure that everything goes smoothly,” Viswanathan mentioned. “Even then, you can have some kind of issues that could happen with the sound or the lighting systems that often happen.”

Another volunteer, now the manufacturing supervisor for AubFest, is Jason Owens, a junior learning theater. At his first AubFest, he served because the lighting designer and board operator. Now, he leads the stage setup and helps talk with manufacturing firms to plan out what gear is required for every performer.

When the competition is over, the workers start to overview it.

“We’re gonna review how the festival went, all the logistics, trying to figure out what we can do better,” Calderon-Wyant mentioned. “What went wrong, what went great, what people like, stuff like that.”

Every yr, they’re devoted to creating the competition greater. Dimon hopes to make use of extra acres of their website, Boggin’ on the Plains, whereas Calderon-Wyant is planning on upgrading their new experimental stage, “The Grove,” and probably including much more levels.

This yr, AubFest had its largest attendance but, with over 1,200 individuals displaying up over two days. The workers anticipate attendance to proceed to develop, particularly with new advertising, corresponding to commercials and probably billboards, coming within the spring. However, they’re all the time in search of extra assist.

“If you think three people can pull this off, wait till you see what 50 different people can do,” Dimon mentioned.

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