Spring and summer are packed with hot summer music festivals. Bonnaroo in Tennessee, Coachella in California and Lollapalooza in Chicago are just a few of the many multiple-day music festivals held across the country. This past weekend, a group of Ohio State students held their own festival: Bounceroo.

From Thursday night to Saturday night, more than 20 artists performed on the steps of Sullivant Hall in the Wexner Center plaza. Some of the performers were Way Yes, Fever Fever and Baking with Knives.

The Musician’s Collective, a student group on campus, put on the event.

“It’s a group of students, musicians and just music connoisseurs, I guess. Just kind of anyone who likes to be around local music,” said Corey Zanotti, a third-year in art and technology and the president of Musician’s Collective. “We get together once a week to share songs and give feedback.”

Each band received about a 40-minute set for its performance.

Musician’s Collective received a large grant from the university to put on the event. The group decided to bring in a moon bounce, hence the name of the event.

“We had a lot of funding from the university, so we decided to get a moon bounce and call it Bounceroo,” Zanotti said.

Musician’s Collective brought in a sound technician to work the event and has had open booking for bands during the last two months.

“We just kind of booked bands until it was full,” Zanotti said. “So we got a schedule, a sound guy and bands are just kind of loading their gear and playing.”

One of the few problems occurred when one of the bands dropped out before the event. But this was quickly fixed when Zanotti and company contacted local rapper Potier to fill the vacated time slot.

Zanotti described the attendance as “really good” despite rain and inclement weather.
“Despite the rain, there were a lot of people out,” Zanotti said. “We have 50 chairs here and they were all full.”

Zanotti and Musician’s Collective were able to collaborate with the World’s Longest BBQ, a weeklong philanthropy event sponsored by Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity and the Buckeye Barbeque Qlub and also being held in the Wexner plaza.

Although Bounceroo had no charitable affiliations for the event, Zanotti said it was nice to combine with an event for a good cause, such as the barbecue.

“They’ve been putting a tremendous amount of effort into this,” Zanotti said. “I think it’s just kind of benefiting both events.”

The Musician’s Collective has been at OSU for some time now, but it was formally known as the Future Songwriters of America.

This is the first year Musician’s Collective has hosted the event, but Zanotti said hopefully it is not the last.

“I hope Musician’s Collective becomes a staple of the university’s student organization scene,” Zanotti said. “I hope that these festivals, even if it’s not called Bounceroo and even if it’s not held here, I hope that we have some sort of festival annually.”