After last year’s overwhelming success, the Big Free Concert makes its return to OSU tomorrow.

The concert is built on the tradition of free spring music for the OSU community, and is the largest student run event at the university. Last year’s concert saw 10,000 people pack the South Oval for such bands as Rusted Root, Lucky Boys Confusion, and Oval Opus. Once again, BFC brings together national, regional, and local acts for one big show, and one memorable night of music.

“Big Free Concert has evolved over the past few years into what I would call a massive, major concert event,” said Matt Couch, assistant director of the Ohio Union.

“This is the third year of the event known as Big Free Concert; prior to that it was an event known as “Springfest,” which the student radio station still does and takes place on the last day of classes. The origins of the concert concept goes clear back to an event that the Ohio Staters used to do called “Groovin’ in the Hollow.’

In more recent years, the radio station decided that the format for the concert needed to more closely reflect the format of their station. As a result, some of the bands that other student organizations wanted to see brought to the show didn’t match the format of the radio station. The groups made a mutual decision to start a new concert event; the radio station would continue to have “Springfest,” but the Ohio Union Activities Board decided to go forward with the Big Free Concert,” he said.

The concert is the most popular spring event at OSU, and the festival has been generating steady national attention since its inception. The goal of the concert is to provide a free concert for students at the university, but by featuring popular local, regional, and national acts, the OUAB hopes that BFC will be established as a major, nationally renowned college campus concert festival. With the help of the Coca-Cola Company again this year, they may be taking one step closer to meeting their goal.

“Without the sponsorship of Coca-Cola, and other groups on campus, the concert wouldn’t be possible because the OUAB is very modestly funded. They wouldn’t be able to do a concert of this kind without their support. The product that Coke is hoping to get exposure with, is called Sprite Remix; the concert will actually be presented by that product,” he said.

The BFC will have three stages running in staggered order to ensure nine hours of uninterrupted music; while one act is finishing up, the next will already be set up and ready to go on another stage. As bands take to the stage for their sets, there will be a complete festival vibe going on throughout the concert area; vendors from the Ohio Union will be providing food and beverages, and bands will have their merchandise up for sale.

As was the case with last year’s BFC, there is an impressive line-up of bands coming to perform, and a large crowd is expected. The crowd projections for this BFC have grown considerably since the last concert; organizers expect that if the weather holds, the BFC could easily draw between 15,000-20,000 concert goers.

“We’re going to have national act, Vertical Horizon, closing the show this year,” said BFC producer Manish Lamba.

“They’re bringing in Blue October for support, and we’re going to have a popular local act called Red Wanting Blue; we have Kill Hannah, an alternative semi-punk band; July for Kings, a national act wit more of a straight rock n’ roll feel; Fate Hates Us, a jam band from Athens, Ohio; and many for talented acts. We’ve got a great line-up this year, with 10 bands in all,” he said.

With a long night of continuous rock music, security will be on hand just in case things get too wild. Lamba stressed that the crowds so far have been good, and that there has been a minimal number of problems from concert attendees in the past. Even with the number of fans attending the concert expected to rise considerably this year, organizers are confident that the OSU community will make the event a success once again.

“The crowds are pretty mellow. A lot of times we try to choose acts, especially headliners, that aren’t going to be too rowdy at 1am,” said director of university relations Peter Voderberg.

“I don’t recall a serious incident at all last year; no major injuries or anything like that. The crowds have not destroyed anything and the bands have never felt in danger; our crowds have been great, and I would expect the same for this year,” he said.

Lamba personally extends an invitation out to anyone that would like to see BFC, and encourages people to bring their friends. Those who aren’t part of the OSU community are still welcome to attend.

The BFC kicks off at 4 p.m. today, and is expected to last until 1am.