The Grand Center Committee and Billikens After Dark came together to bring students the Billiken Music Festival.
The festival kicked off its first year on April 7 with the Southern Cross Band.
Freshman Hannah Urban described the April 7 band as a “really nice mix of country and rock.”
Despite the mild weather, the Billiken Music Festival was not heavily attended.
“It is a lot of fun. There aren’t many people though. I feel bad for the band,” sophomore Claire McInerney said.
The festival will continue every Wednesday through the remainder of April. Like the April 7 installment, the rest will be held in the Busch Student Center Amphitheater. On each of these evenings, the festivities will begin at 7:30 p.m. There will be free popcorn, Fitz’s Rootbeer and Ski (Mountain Dew fused with a citrus flavor). In addition, Vito’s will be selling pizza and venues from Grand Center will be present.
Junior and chairman for the festival Craig Stoecklin is the mastermind behind the festival. He is a fan of the Whitaker Music Festival that takes places each summer at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. It is from this festival that he got the inspiration for the Billiken Music Festival.
“I wanted to bring something similar to [Saint Louis University]; a chance to enjoy the SLU community while relaxing with friends outside in the spring,” Stoecklin said.
Stoecklin, who is also the Chairman for the Grand Center Committee at SLU, works with these venues.
“I thought it would be ideal to create a music festival that has music that may be comparable to the style held at Grand Center Venues,” Stoecklin said.
He explained that the committee took advice from these venues when deciding what bands to bring in.
In the end they decided to bring in local, well-known bands to play at the festival.
Treble Clef Palette will be performing on April 14, Elsinore on April 21 and Rhythm Watch Band on April 28.
Stoecklin said that the festival would be low key.
“It’s not about name recognition,” he said.
Following the music, a movie will be shown three out of the four weeks.
In case of bad weather, the festival will relocate to The Billiken Club on the ground floor of the Busch Student Center.
