This year’s Old Main Music Festival will feature local act Soul Gravy, ’90s rockers Gin Blossoms, rapper Fabolous and and alt-rock band OneRepublic. On campus student groups Music Maker Productions, the Campus Activities Board and the Student Association are responsible for the festival. Soul Gravy, who will take the stage at 6 p.m., rose to the forefront of the local music scene in early March when it won State Theatre’s Battle of the Bands over seven competitors. The band is composed almost entirely of past MSU students. The band describes itself as “Mississippi backwoods soul”.
Soul Gravy’s set will be followed by Gin Blossoms at 7 p.m. Gin Blossoms was chosen based on the band’s throwback sound and recognizable name.
“They are sort of our ‘back to the ’90s rock band,” Young said. “We knew the faculty and their families would be more familiar with the name than Fabolous and OneRepublic. They’ve sold over two million albums and received a Grammy nomination.”
The concert’s next act is rapper Fabolous, who will take the stage at 8:30. He has two platinum albums and one gold under his belt.
“In the other concerts this year we haven’t had any rappers so we knew we wanted to approach that area that hadn’t been touched,” Young said.
The final act of the night will be pop rock group OneRepublic, who has seen enormous success recently with its hit single “Apologize.” The song spent 10 consecutive weeks in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, has maintained a No. 1 position on the Top 40 chart for two music downloads. The band’s current single “Stop and Stare” is having success as well, currently at No. 8 on the iTunes chart.
“It’s going up higher and higher,” Young said. “We’re very excited about [OneRepublic].” OneRepublic will be taking the stage at 10 p.m.
While Soul Gravy and the Gin Blossoms are separate selections especially for the festival, OneRepublic and Fabolous will be making their stops on MSU’s campus as part of their “Crocs Next Step Campus Tour.” According to the tour’s Web site, this is an annual event in which “15 of the best campuses in the nation” are selected and visited. In addition to Crocs, several other sponsors for the tour and the festival will be present.
“It will be an awesome festival feeling,” Young said. “We’ll have various vendors from around town, such as Mugshots and Hotel Chester. The Crocs people will be handing out free Crocs materials. The World Poker Tour mobile group will be there. They’ll be handing out free items. Xbox 360 and MLB.com will be there.”
Barring bad weather, the festival will be held at the MSU Amphitheater.
“If it’s outdoors everyone is more than welcome to bring their coolers,” Young said. “If it’s indoors they can’t. The rain location will be announced the Monday before the festival. Be on the lookout for that.”
Those involved believe the music festival to be a final stand before the home stretch of the semester.
“Just remember, it’s free,” Young said. “It will be a great time to get out and have one big bash before the end of school and before finals all kick in. It will be a fun night. Be prepared to have a good time. Its good music and a lot of free stuff.”
The doors and vendor area will open at 5:30 p.m. with the music starting at 6 p.m. For more information visit www.msstate.edu/org/mmp or call 325-2930.