Bands invade BU campus for Crash the Courtyard
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/09/2015 (3641 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The first-ever Crash the Courtyard event got off to a slow start Friday afternoon, despite the Brandon University Students’ Union selling roughly 780 tickets prior to the orientation week finale.
The outdoor concert, held at BU’s Kavanagh Courtyard, started at 3:30 p.m. and headliner Aaron Pritchett was scheduled to hit the stage around 10:30 p.m.
Four hours after the gates opened, there was only a handful of people enjoying the music, but organizers remained hopeful for a big turnout.
“We hope that another 600 to 700 will roll through the doors this evening,” said Rhoni Mohanraj, BUSU’s vice-president external.
Crash the Courtyard is a downsized version of BUSU’s annual Rock the Block fundraising event, which the students’ union decided to step away from after major financial losses in 2014.
Mohanraj said he regularly attended Rock the Block.
“I loved the atmosphere of being out at an outdoor concert because that doesn’t happen a lot in Brandon,” Mohanraj said.
“There’s little things we borrowed from that event and a lot of things we implemented because it’s a whole different venue.”
Mohanraj said this year, BUSU wanted to give students a more intimate experience with a focus on local talent — in previous years, Rock the Block had featured big-name artists like Sam Roberts, The Trews and Classified.
“BU’s music school is one of the most talented in Canada, so we thought ‘Hey, why not use some of this talent?’” Mohanraj said.
Student bands Wheat City Brass, Chel and Venn took to the festival’s small stage early in the day in front of a crowd of roughly 40 people.
For Leila Kristjanson, a first-year music student at BU, seeing her classmates perform was a highlight of the event regardless of the turnout.
“It’s really cool seeing (peers), not just in the school or in the classroom, but actually applied to a real stage,” Kristjanson said.
Matt Kozicki, also a music student, said he was enjoying the music, but he was expecting a larger crowd when he and several friends showed up around 4 p.m.
“I got here and was like, ‘Where is everybody?’ It was weird. I thought it would be completely packed here, but hopefully more people come,” Kozicki said.
While Crash the Courtyard had been billed as “the best party of the year,” some students wished the party had started after the school day was finished.
“Earlier on when they started playing recorded music, there was still classes going on, so it was a bit disruptive,” said Reid Ogilvie, a second-year art history student at BU. “Maybe start at 4:30 or 5 p.m. when most classes are out, because our prof was getting really annoyed.”
As with any new event, there are a few kinks to work out with Crash the Courtyard, but organizers are looking forward to next year.
“Next time, we’ll try to switch times a little bit,” Mohanraj said.
» ewasney@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @evawasney