March 25, 2021 marked the commencement of this year’s TechFest, an annual music festival hosted by the student-run Entertainment Committee (EC) at Stevens. This year’s event was a bit different; instead of one big concert, EC organized a series of events with the help of students involved in WCPR — Castle Point Radio. Five main events were conducted via Zoom, featuring artists and internet personalities Jeremy Zucker, COIN, Cody Ko, Rico Nasty, and Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson.
The series began with a virtual concert and Q&A from American singer-songwriter Jeremy Zucker. Zucker’s performance set consisted of his songs “every day,” “all the kids are depressed,” “supercuts,” “oh mexico,” “comethru,” and “talk is overrated.” The event was moderated by student Chloe Brenna and opened with performances by Stevens artists Chris Nitti, Randiel Zoquier, and Meyersville.
During the Q&A portion of the event, Stevens students were chosen to meet Zucker and ask him a question. Kaylee Gardner, a 3/4.5 Business & Technology major said that “Meeting Jeremy Zucker was honestly a dream come true for me […] he was super sweet and happy to talk with us during the meet and greet, and I was so thankful to EC for this opportunity.” She also commented that “it was really cool to see opening bands/musicians from Stevens and to watch Jeremy do a much more personal and stripped down version of his songs.”
Audience members, as well as live participants, also shared a similar sentiment on the success of the event. Senior Quantitative Finance major Gabriel Maiolo noted, “I thought it was a phenomenal event that went better than any of the previous TechFests due to the intimacy of the event. One thing I loved from this event was how raw the performing was by Jeremy, as it did not feel scripted at all and was just him playing for us.”
The event was a technical success, as well. Garrett Horwath, President of the EC, stated that there were “minimal tech issues, everything was on schedule, the concert was great, and the openers were fantastic!” He also mentioned, “I believe we had somewhere between 90-100 devices logged on,” not counting the groups of people that were watching the event together on a single device.
The second event featured American pop rock band COIN on April 9. The preshow for this event consisted of performances by Upstate Royalty and Stevens bands Beekeeper and ScreenAge. Emily MacMahon, sophomore Music and Technology major, is a vocalist, guitarist, and keyboardist for ScreenAge. MacMahon commented that “it was awesome to create a video for the show and so surreal to be opening up for COIN.” She expressed that meeting COIN was “an awesome opportunity” and that “it might have been the virtual environment encouraging everyone to be a little more comfortable.”
After the preshow and performance by COIN, a Q&A with the band was hosted by Morgan Brenner, a 5/5 Computer Science major. Regarding his interview with COIN, Brenner noted, “I love COIN so I was nervous to interview them. I really wanted it to feel like a conversation and not just shooting questions at them, and I’d like to think it ended up that way! […] they seemed like really cool guys.” Brenner also mentioned that “the technical side of this event went flawlessly.”
Khianna Byrne, a 3/4 Visual Arts and Technology major, also had the opportunity to talk to COIN. She mentioned that “I thought the event was very successful! […] I was pleasantly surprised by how well each of the performances by the band and the openers went. I especially loved COIN’s lowkey versions of each of their songs.” Regarding 2021 TechFest as a whole, Byrne remarked, “I love the way EC did TechFest this year, having a variety of artists and a lot of student performers to open.”
The third TechFest event was held on April 16, which consisted of a Q&A with YouTuber and comedian Cody Ko. The Q&A was moderated by Kaylee Gardner, who commented that “Cody was as friendly, funny, and relatable as I could have ever hoped and I had a great time talking with him and asking him our students’ questions.” Gardner expressed that the event was “really successful,” and she could sense the excitement from the audience members in the chat, as they were actively engaged. “I had a lot of friends reach out to me before and after the event to say how they were so happy Cody was coming to our virtual campus or how much they liked the event,” stated Gardner.
Ryan Tapalaga, sophomore Music and Technology major, asked Ko a question through a skit with his roommate, David Topchishvili. “It kind of felt like I was talking to a Youtube video in the best way possible,” Tapalaga noted about his experience with the event. “Overall everyone had a great time and Cody was a perfect person to talk to given his background and sense of humor.”
The next TechFest event, a virtual concert and Q&A with American rapper and songwriter Rico Nasty, took place on April 23. The event opened with performances by Stevens artists Classifyde, Cool and Good, and Ryan Tapalaga and the Q&A was moderated by student Nasir Montalvo.
One of the meet and greet attendees, a 2/5 Mechanical Engineering student Nathan Lancia, expressed that talking to Rico Nasty was “refreshing.” Lancia stated, “she felt so real […] she was much more human than I thought most celebrities would be. Rico is hysterically funny and just in general a great person to talk to.” In regard to the success of the event, Lancia “would definitely say the event was a success […] the transition between the different stages of the event felt pretty seamless and it was clear a lot of time and effort went into the event.”
On May 6, the series came to an end with a virtual conversation with American comedian Pete Davidson. Many students had the opportunity to ask Davidson questions, and to join in on part of the conversation; Brian Katat, a 1/5 Chemical Engineering student expressed, “He was exactly as I expected him to be: easy-going, cool, friendly, and (of course) hilarious.” Katat further remarked, “On top of that, at least 10 students I know from other colleges expressed how much they wish their colleges did cool stuff like Stevens.” Katat also expressed his satisfaction with the EC, noting that “I think that these events need to stress how comfortable and easy the Entertainment Committee makes it for you. For example, they actually texted me checking on my status and reminding me of my question, which was super helpful!”
Nikolas Stefanov, a 3/4 Computer Science major, also spoke with Davidson during the final TechFest event. “I thought the event was great,” he said, “I’ve been on EC for 2 years now and I’ve experienced many virtual events and in my opinion this year’s TechFest events have been the best ones we’ve had.” Stefanov also noted that, “we had a very high attendance compared to many of our other virtual events which is exactly what we wanted to do with TechFest.”
Despite the current virtual circumstances, the EC was still able to pull off a thorough, multi-event TechFest this year; Stefanov emphasized that “the event is for the entire school to come and enjoy, and I thought that we did a great job covering many different genres for the wide variety of students […] I thought that all of the different events were handled great and even though it wasn’t in person, it was still an experience that I could never get anywhere else.”
For more information on TechFest, or to find out what the Entertainment Committee is planning next, students can visit DuckLink, the EC’s Instagram page, or email the EC at entertainment@stevens.edu.
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