MURFREESBORO — MTSU’s College of Mass
Communication is giving the university community unprecedented access Wednesday,
Oct. 8, to the co-founders and organizers of one of music’s largest and most
popular events: the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival.
The
daylong seminar, which is open to the public, will feature Bonnaroo co-founders
Ashley Capps and Rick Farman and the festival’s entire management team to
discuss all aspects of the internationally acclaimed festival — from its
business model, planning, marketing and media to its community spirit,
volunteerism, music and programming.
“It's an extraordinary
opportunity for a college of media and music to host a group of
professionals so adept at both,” said Ken Paulson, dean of MTSU’s College of
Mass Communication.
“Bonnaroo is one of the
most successful music festivals in the world, and the entire organization has
been generous with its time and talent.”
Farman, co-founder of
Bonnaroo and entertainment company Superfly Presents, called MTSU “an important
neighbor and a valuable state resource.”
“It's exciting to have
the opportunity to share our unique story with students who can benefit from
both our successes and our challenges,” he added.’
Echoed Bonnaroo
co-founder Capps of AC Entertainment: "These students are the next
generation of event producers, musicians, marketers and industry professionals.
It's gratifying to know we can help them advance their education and,
ultimately, their careers."
“Bonnaroo:
The Making of a Music Festival” is set from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Parliamentary
Room, Room 201, of MTSU’s Student Union. You can find a printable campus map at
http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap14-15.
The scheduled sessions
are:
- “The Business of Bonnaroo,” 10:20-11:15 a.m.
- “The Spirit and Community of Bonnaroo,” 11:30 a.m.-12:25 p.m.
- “The Music and Programming of Bonnaroo,” 12:40-2:05 p.m.
- “The Marketing and Media of Bonnaroo,” 2:20-3:45 p.m.
The four-day festival
launched in 2002 with little traditional advertising and sold out its 70,000
tickets in 11 days. Since then, organizers have continued to expand both its
entertainment offerings and its 700-acre site near Manchester, Tennessee, to
grow into an event that Rolling Stone magazine has called one of the “50
moments that changed the history of rock ‘n’ roll.”
Its performers over the
years look like an audiophile’s iTunes playlist. Artists ranging from James
Brown to Skrillex, Loretta Lynn to Janelle Monáe and Buffalo Springfield to
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have taken Bonnaroo’s multiple stages, drawing
crowds that reached more than 90,000 by the 2014 event.
MTSU’s College of Mass
Communication teamed up with Bonnaroo leaders earlier this year in an ongoing
partnership that brought the festival officials to campus in April for
question-and-answer sessions with students and then put MTSU students behind
the scenes at Bonnaroo in June for multimedia news coverage.
This Oct. 8 public
symposium also is part of that partnership, Paulson said.
“It's simply
unprecedented for the full management team of a world-class music festival to
take a full day to engage and educate the next generation of music and media
professionals,” the dean said.
“This is going to be a
remarkable exploration of the hard work and creativity behind a singular
entertainment event.”
You can get a preview of
the Oct. 8 event via a video of a conversation between Paulson and Bonnaroo
co-founders Capps and Farman available at http://vimeo.com/107190073.
Off-campus visitors
attending the Bonnaroo symposium should be sure to check in with MTSU’s Office
of Parking and Transportation to obtain a visitor’s parking permit for the day,
officials said.
For more information on “Bonnaroo: The Making of a Music
Festival,” call 615-898-5171 or email rachel.helms@mtsu.edu.
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