SpringFest will stick around a bit longer this year.
The annual SpringFest outdoor festival will expand into three different areas and, for the first time since its start in 2011, will cover multiple days.
For the past three years, MUSIC Matters, has held the annual event to provide an opportunity for local musicians, artists, restaurants and University student organizations to engage with the broader campus community.
The festival features a headlining musical act in Hill Auditorium. Previous performers have included J. Cole, Ben Folds and 2 Chainz. This year’s act has yet to be announced.
Business senior Nicholas Moeller, SpringFest chair, said the event will highlight University student organizations that fit the following five categories: sustainability, innovation, arts, community service and social identity.
To engage students’ entrepreneurial spirit, Moeller said SpringFest will also feature “Startup Village,” a hub that will include student-run or student-founded startups from the Ann Arbor area.
“It’s an opportunity to engage the broader campus community as well as showcase the best of what Michigan has to offer,” he said. “So, it’s an event that tries to bring together students from all corners of campus.”
A film festival, a new SpringFest feature, will start in the evening on April 16.
MUSIC Matters has collaborated with film-oriented student organizations such as M-Agination Films and the Film and Video Student Association to select a line-up of films to display. Moeller said they hope to screen those films at the beginning of the festival and end the evening with a keynote speaker provided through the University’s Department of Screen Arts and Culture.
“Our idea was really to reach more areas of campus to promote some student films, promote some student work in areas we haven’t highlighted in past years,” he said. “Organizations like that already have a pretty large repository of student films and they’ll be sending us some of the ones they’d like to screen at the event.”
MUSIC Matters President Darren Appel, a Business senior, said he is excited about the event’s multi-day schedule.
“Since the beginning, the goal has always been to create this end-of-the-year capstone festival event where it’s multiple days long and we’re reaching all areas of campus, and engaging as many people as possible,” Appel said. “So, I think this is the first installment of making that long-term goal a reality, and I’m really excited to expand in that sense.”
LSA senior Marli Siegel, MUSIC Matters communications director, said she is looking forward to seeing interaction between student organizations and the student body at large.
“We’re making such progress with making this an event so that student groups showcase what they’re doing at the University and really highlighting all of their accomplishments,” Siegel said.
“I think seeing that come into fruition is really the most exciting and the most rewarding thing for sure. All of the additions and all of the expansions that we’re doing I think are only going to elevate and propel that even further from what we’ve achieved in the past.”
Though the University hosts several student organization showcases, such as Festifall and Winterfest, Appel said SpringFest is unique.
“These are engaging and interactive displays where the students can actually come and not only talk to the students in the different student orgs and startups, but actually touch and feel and engage with whatever the product is or event is that they’re displaying,” Appel said.
Correction appended: A previous version of this article misstated the position of Marli Siegel. She is MUSIC Matters communications director. In addition, the film festival will only occur on the night of April 16.