Established 1826 — Oldest College Newspaper West of the Alleghenies

GLOWfest brings electronic music to college campuses

Zoe Hesp, For The Miami Student

It is nearly impossible to be a college student and to not realize the recent overwhelming interest in electronic music in popular culture, especially on university campuses. From ‘Dubstep Wednesday' at Decibel to an exponential increase in festival wristbands seen in class, this genre – which prior to 10 years ago was still considered to be an underground society – has exploded into a new musical culture, propelled mainly by college-age listeners. But the main difference between electronica and other pop sounds is the activity and physical involvement associated with festival life that has not been seen since the days of Woodstock.

One such example of this ever-growing ‘festival' interest is GLOWfest – a single day mini electronic music festival that tours college campuses each year. Unlike most music festivals that are hosted entirely by independent organizations, GLOWfest partners with universities for promotion, charity fundraising and general student empowerment. GLOWfest's co-founders Jack Shannon and Deuce Thevenow began their musical mission with philanthropy in mind. Each student organization involved gets a percentage of their tickets sold donated to their chosen cause. In exchange, GLOWfest itself is put on in an area close to the chosen university and bus services are provided for student transportation. The goal of such organizations like GLOWfest is to give college students – who make up one of the largest populations of festival attendees and electronic music consumers – easier access to the live music experience while still being able to accommodate such events into their school year schedules.

"Europe has always had large scale electronic concerts; this is just now gaining a hold in the States. It's about the whole experience: the clothes, the lights, the music." Shannon said. And now through GLOWfest, Shannon feels as if they can expand that level of listener involvement even more. "We're not LiveNation, we're not Ticketmaster … we're just a couple of guys right out of school, and we're looking to help students who want real world experience for their resumés," Shannon said. "This is serious entertainment. It is amazing that students [from the hosting universities] can organize something of this caliber that would normally take an entire professional organization to accomplish."

GLOWfest will be hosting its next show in conjunction with Indiana University from 4:30 p.m. until around 11 p.m. Wednesday at Pic A Chic Farms in Bloomington, Ind. This is GLOWfest's third appearance at IU, pulling thousands of students to its sounds. This event is part of Deadmau5's Meowingtons Hax Tour, featuring Deadmau5, Excision, Feed Me and Le Castle Vania, with advance general admission tickets set at $40. Deadmau5, who exploded into the electronic dance music scene in 2006, was ranked fourth in the 2010 DJ Mag's TOP 100 DJs, following just behind David Guetta, Tiesto and Armin Van Buren. His iconic ‘mouse head' costume has certainly helped to single him out as one of the most recent influential electronic musicians in pop culture.

While GLOWfest has found its ticket-selling success by booking headliners such as Deadmau5, it also allows them to highlight up-and-coming local talent at their shows as well. The college atmosphere lends itself to a more open crowd who is accepting of new and experimental sounds. One Miami University student, sophomore Charlie Boggs, who will be attending GLOWfest at IU next week said, "I've been to a lot of festivals, but I'm really excited for GLOWfest because of the diversity of electronic music being represented … GLOWfest also is the perfect setting for first-time concert-goers who can feel more comfortable in an environment of peers."

Once again, GLOWfest truly embodies this college student-driven trend in popular electronic music, specifically by rewarding colleges with their sponsorship for upcoming events. GLOWfest is currently in the process of organizing a 20-day spring college tour for April 2012. They are looking for interested universities to be hosts. Miami students can vote to have GLOWfest come to our campus and learn about becoming a campus representative at the GLOWfest website (www.glowfesttour.com).