Jonathon Liedtke – Monday, July 29, 2013
It’s all about electronic music again as the University of Windsor Students’ Alliance (UWSA) has announced 24-year-old Netherlands’ native DJ Nicky Romero as the headline act.
Now in its third year, the music fest will also feature Josh Karmin, Sydney Blu and Toronto based Torro Torro.
Last year The UWSA brought DJ Avicii to Windsor for roughly $130,000, and overall the $250,000 event ended up costing students $37,000 more than budgeted.
This year, The UWSA has sought to mitigate losses and has secured partnerships for the event and have set the event budget at $50,000.
“Last year what we learned is that in order to pull an event of this magnitude [off] with a school as small as Windsor, you really need to reach out and partner with other people,” said UWSA President Rob Crawford. “That’s why we have three partners going into the event and we’re just one of the many investors [overall].”
The $50,000 contribution to the event secures the UWSA 3,333 tickets to sell, a percentage of sponsorships sold and all proceeds from student tickets sold.
“We wanted to make sure that we didn’t spend over the [budget] and that we’re being responsible with student money,” said Crawford, adding “and that we don’t lose $35,000 moving forward again if we’re going to throw something of this size.”
Crawford explained that any additional revenue generated by the UWSA above their investment will be added to their programming budget to “put on more events for students … we’ve got a contract that is great for students.”
Ivona Bilbilovska serves as the Vice President Social for the UWSA and she explained that Nicky Romero and the electronic music genre appeals to a younger demographic.
“Nicky Romero really relates to the demographic that we’re targeting,” she said. “We’re all in university, we’re all his age, electronic music is really hitting mainstream and it’s something that we can all relate to.”
Bilbilovska believes that the event will “energize the students” and will prompt them to both “get them involved” and “really start off the year on a great note.”
“This is the largest event that we’ve ever held in the history of the University of Windsor and the fact that we’re able to incorporate the community in that as well is really important to us,” she explained. “We want to better the relations that we have, especially since we’re moving into the downtown core.”
Crawford believes that the event will be especially exciting to students because “especially in a city like Windsor, it’s really hard to get that many students involved … I think having something like this … is something that students won’t forget and when they’re talking to students from other schools [they can brag].”
The UWSA hopes to draw over 10,000 attendees and roughly 4,000 students overall and The Coming Home Music Festival takes place on Wednesday, September 4 at 4 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased at http://cominghomemusicfestival2013.eventbrite.com/
UWSA throws third annual Coming Home Music Festival at $50,000 price tag (mississauga.com)
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