Band Bash, hosted by the music industry club at BGSU, provided students with a night of free entertainment from local bands. The music festival promoted the bands as well as what the music industry club has to offer.
Attendees enjoyed music from four local bands: One Billion Lions, Dallas & Daniels, Respirator and Milk on the Rocks. The club’s goal was to showcase these up and coming bands to the community and show that music comes in many forms.
“The music industry club really focuses on making music more than just a form of entertainment, but introducing it to the public as a form of community and a place where you can find a career,” said Mitchell Hurley, senior media production major and vice president of the music industry club. “The club does its best to promote local musicians and also help out local musicians, while keeping people up to date on the state of music in general.”
The club gives students the opportunity to explore what a career in music looks like and connect with others who have the same goals.
“My favorite part of music industry club is definitely being around the people and just talking about music,” said Brynn Drabek, junior media production major and president of music industry club.
Band Bash provided the club’s members with first hand experience hosting musical events.
“It was kind of another opportunity for us to give our members more hands-on experience with setting up events like these,” Hurley said.
Planning Band Bash also opened up the opportunity for members to connect with bands from the local scene.
“Booking the bands involved reaching out to them over Instagram and over email. Getting them to show up. It’s a lot of outreach coordination,” Drabek stated.
Band Bash not only had live entertainment, but attendees could shop for second hand clothes and items, which they called ‘Rummage and Rhythm’. This was a way for the club to fundraise for future events like Band Bash.
“It took us creating a fundraiser committee where we discussed ideas to really come up with what we want to do,” Hurley said. “They gave the idea of donating our old clothes that we are not using anymore and selling those.”
Implementing Rummage and Rhythm helped the club to gain more donations at the festival than they’ve seen at previous events.
“I saw that we were at $60, and that was before the first act was over,” said Hurley.
Band Bash helped to form a community of music-lovers that wanted to show their support for the local scene.
“In small towns, there’s not always a lot to do but there always happens to be a really good music scene. There’s so many musicians in Bowling Green and not a lot of people know about them,” said Drabek. “I think that’s why it’s really important to uplift them and help them achieve their dreams of becoming musicians.”
Local bands playing on campus helped to promote their music to those who may not be up to date on the music scene in Bowling Green.
“Sometimes it’s hard to break into local scenes, because you need to know people and know who’s Instagram to follow,” said Drabek. “Bringing free music to campus is a really accessible way for people to learn about the music scene.”
Those in the music industry club strive to share their passion for music with others and help aspiring musicians achieve their dream.
“Music is literally what I live and breathe. It’s been the thing that I’ve wanted to do since I was a little kid. To me, local music and the community around local music is all of those little kids who had that dream, getting to live it out with each other,” said Hurley.
For more information about the club and their upcoming events, visit @micbgsu on Instagram.
