This weekend BYUSA will host five local bands for the first annual Goodstock concert, held in the Wilkinson Center Ballroom on Saturday, April 8.
Goodstock event planner David Cheney said BYUSA wanted to create an event with the fun music festival feel of Woodstock, but without all the craziness.
“We wanted the music festival feel that Woodstock has without any of those negative views,” Cheney said. “Goodstock is a positive and clean spin on Woodstock.”
Cheney also said that the students planning the event wanted to keep the concert local.
“Our vision of this music festival was to recruit bands that were either Provo natives or Utah natives.” Cheney said. “We really wanted to get homegrown bands and not only have a great night of music for our students but also build up a big fan base for them here at BYU.”
On the final set list are local bands Van Lady Love, Festive People, Foreign Figures, The Strike and RKDN.
“We are always excited to perform at BYU,” Travis Van Hoff, lead singer of VanLadyLove said. “After long tours, we look forward to the hometown shows. The crowd and energy are electric. It’s going to be a great show with awesome local talent.”
Dave Smiley, the project’s event lead, said it was a struggle finding a space large enough to accommodate not only the anticipated crowd of over 2,000 students, but also provide room for the bands to set up between performances.
“It was a challenge making it so we would be able to have a stage large enough to have one band playing while the other could be setting up at the same time.” Smiley said. “It has been very stressful but also very rewarding working with my team and being able to overcome big hurdles in putting on a concert.”
Goodstock started as a humorous project, but gained traction as the group gathered around the idea, according to Cheney.
“We were brainstorming with our team and our supervisor and it was more of a joke at first when we came up with it,” Cheney said. “Then we really got into the idea of Woodstock. There hasn’t been a music festival done like this before.”
The venue will be the Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom, which will accommodate not only the bands and crowd but also a “Makers Market” set up in the East lounge of the Wilkinson Student Center by the Memorial Room, where students can buy band merchandise as well as items from local artists.
The Cougareat will remain open later on Saturday, allowing students to come and grab food throughout the event.
“I am hoping that lots of musically enthused students can come out for a Saturday night of nonstop music from five local bands,” Smiley said.
Cheney said he has high hopes for the event and wants it to be a success for the students.
“Our number one hope and goal is for the students to walk away satisfied and wanting more,” Cheney said. “We want to sell out and we are on our way to doing just that.”
Goodstock tickets are $8 and can be purchased here. The event starts at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 8.
