Olivia Scott and Julia Dwight were just freshmen helping to organize last year’s TechFest when an emergency election put them in charge of the entire event. Now, as sophomores, they work in a much less chaotic environment organizing this year’s TechFest, which they are hoping to make bigger and better.
TechFest is an on-campus concert hosted by the Entertainment Committee. Past performers have included T-Pain and Jesse McCartney. As Scott and Dwight approach this year’s TechFest, one of their main objectives is to make it more of a festival instead of just a concert.
Last year, forecasts of thunderstorms forced the event inside the gym, but when the day of TechFest came, it was clear skies. This left the event fragmented, with the concert inside and the attractions outside. The hope for this year is that something similar won’t happen.
Pending favorable weather, the plan for this year’s TechFest is for it to be a more cohesive and larger event. Inflatables from previous years are planned to return, in addition to other attractions. Scott and Dwight want people to come out to the event earlier. While they can’t say anything for certain this early in the planning process, they are looking to get more involvement from the community.
Voting for this year’s performers has already closed with 1,077 students voting. Behind the scenes, the Entertainment Committee works with an agent who provides them a list of performers within the budget. The members of the committee debate extensively on which performers to choose before whittling them down to the list that, after approval by Student Life, is sent out to the student body to be voted on.
When asked if they could share any of the potential performers this year, Scott and Dwight responded with a firm “no,” hoping to keep it a mystery for the student body to speculate about. They could, however, tell me that the three most voted for performers were the three that they and their agent have been pursuing for this year’s TechFest.
From the interview, the mood surrounding this year’s TechFest was extremely positive. Scott and Dwight said they started planning earlier and project it to be a bigger event than last year. They want it to be an event for all students, so that “even if you don’t love the artist, there’s still gonna be activities that you can come out with your friends for.”
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