For junior Tyler Busse, as well as many of us, live music is inextricable from Lawrence campus culture, be it immersing oneself in an orchestra concert or rocking out to a student-led band at a basement party. When it comes to on-campus live music events, many of our minds jump — certainly mine does — to LUaroo, Lawrence’s annual on-campus music festival, which allows a space for students to leave their worries at the door for a weekend and make some end-of-year memories. For those memories, we have a group of highly dedicated students to thank: our very own Lawrence University Band Booking Committee (BBC, not to be confused with the British Broadcasting Channel).
Having been in a high school band, Busse had experience in being booked — the other side of his duties as BBC co-president — before he came to Lawrence. His first contact with the booking side of live music followed not long after his arrival as a first-year; early in Fall Term 2022, Busse found himself at a student organization fair, where he stumbled upon BBC’s booth. Before that moment, he didn’t know that booking bands was a student-run activity that he, too, could potentially take part in. Out of curiosity, he signed up for their email list. Being in the right place at the right time may have led him there, but it was the community of Lawrentians similarly passionate about bringing the live music they love to campus he found there that kept and keeps him coming back.
To Busse, the club’s name is both self-explanatory — as it suggests, BBC reaches out to bands all across the country in hopes to bring them to campus — and somewhat misleading; the organization’s prime responsibility is to find musicians for LUaroo only. However, though Busse acknowledged that “all [they] do is LUaroo,” he also emphasized that the same is true when you rearrange the sentence: Yes, “all [they] do is LUaroo,” but they do all of LUaroo. Booking bands is just the half of it: green room preparation, organizing food trucks — you name it, they do it. Still, to Busse, the biggest challenge BBC grapples with is the race against ever-eroding time in the chaos of festival coordination.
“It sneaks up on you,” Busse said. “We’re four months out from LUaroo right now, which feels like forever and also is no time at all.”
These months slip away in a second for BBC between connecting with artists both on- and off-campus and organizing the festival’s logistical elements. Each member is tasked with reaching out to these musicians with the hope of seeing them brought to and shared with Lawrence. BBC’s weekly meetings start with a status update: Who has responded to their inquiries? Are the quotes reasonable? After listening to their music, do they think the artist fits the LUaroo vibe? The club then casts their final votes based on these and other questions to either do what they do best — book the to-be-LUaroo performer — or consider other options.
Before they know it, Spring Term is upon them. In those final few weeks, the club invests great effort into making this eagerly awaited university tradition a reality. But then that weekend, when the speakers are booming, hands are thrown up in the air and Lawrentians, overcome by the infectious LUaroo energy, are rocking out without a care in the world, is when Busse knows that all the work they have put in has paid off. That feeling was especially true of last year’s LUaroo; despite Sunday having been bombarded by rain, Busse remembered his awe at the numerous Lawrentians that still came out and had fun at the festival he helped bring to life.
“I remember [being] like ‘The stage is here […] the food is here, the artists are here and the people are here and having a good time,’” Busse reflected. “To know that I helped people have a really awesome weekend [was and] is so rewarding.”
Busse announced BBC has an additional goal for their band hunt this year; the organization is prioritizing the pursual of artists pitched by the Lawrence community through QR codes on posters or their meetings, which he made clear are open-door to Lawrentians looking to recommend potential performers.
“We really strive to make a festival that the most amount of people are going to enjoy, and that requires people to tell us what they want,” Busse explained.
By the end of the interview, the excitement that so many of us feel about LUaroo caught up to me. So, in the spirit of good journalism and maybe, just maybe, a little personal curiosity, I asked him: “If you would, [Busse], what can you tell us about this coming LUaroo?”
“It’s still very early,” Busse told me, but not without adding: “But I think the team that we have this year is going to kick ass. We’re going to put on a really good show.”