Student Association organizers say they hope to draw more than 25,000 people to the Cotton District for the 5th annual Bulldog Bash tonight. The Bash, which boasts concerts and “Fan Fair,” will kick off with a pep rally on the Student Association stage in front of Roxie’s on University Drive at 6:30 p.m.
“We’re not expecting it to double, but over 25,000 is an attainable goal,” said Chrissie Prichard, director of external events.
“I didn’t talk to a single student last year that didn’t have a good time,” SA President Adam Telle said. “I expect there to be a lot more people. It grew about 10,000 people last year, which could possibly happen again.”
Telle said he expects a bigger turnout than the Bash last year, partly because of extended publicity and partly because of the Auburn football game Saturday.
“The football game is earlier on Saturday; so more people will get into Starkville earlier this year,” Telle said. “Also, we did a lot more advertising at the football game last weekend than we did at the games in the previous years.”
“The artists are bigger; the budget’s bigger and as the community gets more comfortable with the fact that we are having a festival of this kind in Starkville, it allows us to grow more and to get more artists and bigger artists,” Prichard said.
Telle said he, Prichard and Cliff Jones, also a director of external events for the SA, worked all summer to make this year’s event as good or better than the 2003 Bulldog Bash.
“Chrissie, Cliff and I have worked on it every single day since April. In the past month there have been 20 or 30 people proactively involved in working on it every single day. Most of that has been spent fundraising, not planning the event, but that’s a key part.”
Prichard also noted that fundraising was key to the event.
“We immediately started working over the summer fundraising money from local sponsors to the school,” Prichard said. “We raised over $60,000.”
Last year nearly 20,000 people turned out for national recording artist Edwin McCain, but tonight among the various bands performing, up-and-comers Howie Day and Calvin Richardson will headline and are expected to be the main attention-getters.
Soul singer Richardson will begin at 9 p.m. and indie-rocker Day will follow at 11 p.m.
“As far as the headliners, we just looked at what was available and took what we thought were the best choices with the money we had,” Telle said.
Other performers include Santa Fe, Scratch Track, Mile 8 and Breakfast Club, as well as local favorites such as Nash Street, Pet Boy Sherman and Falter.
“We started booking bands and doing online research to find artists that appeal to a diverse audience,” Jones said.
“We wanted to make sure we got a real diverse group of acts,” Telle said. “It’s impossible to make every student happy, but we want to try to make every student come out and have fun. We’ve got country, we’ve got bluegrass, we’ve got R&B, rap, rock-we got it all.”
Starkville natives Nash Street and central Texas natives Santa Fe will bring, respectively, bluegrass and modern country to the event, while Starkville-based Pet Boy Sherman and Falter will provide the rock music. Mile-8 will play their signature jam band music from Tampa, Fla. and Atlanta-based Breakfast Club will entertain with their covers of 80’s pop hits. Scratch Track, a trio from Washington and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., will round out the music scene tonight with their eclectic acoustic hip-hop sound.
Other activities at the Bash will include a PlayStation 2 NCAA College Football tournament and a paintball target practice tournament. Interested players should sign up before 6 p.m. There will also be a mechanical bull, auctions for signed hats by MSU coaches Sylvester Croom, Rick Stansbury and Ron Polk.
“We would like for college students and families alike to come out there earlier to enjoy some of the games that we have going on,” Prichard said.
Events for children include a bungee run, jousting arena, face painting, football toss and jumbo slide.
“We’re really excited to see all the hard work that was put into (Bulldog Bash) come to fruition,” Telle said. “(Bulldog Bash) helps the relationship between us and the community. It gives us legitimacy as an organization to help us down the road in other projects. It’s important to have entertainment as well as great academics.”