Lauren ZahnerWhat do six indie bands, a garden gnome and a senior project have in common?
It’s the KCPR Garden Party.
“It’s really a taste of something different,” journalism sophomore Graham Culbertson said.
Cal Poly’s radio station, KCPR, will be hosting a music festival at Downtown Brew on Garden Street from 2 to 10 p.m. Saturday.
Stacey Anderson, a journalism senior, organized the event for her senior project.
“It’s going to be diverse and it’s going to represent KCPR,” Anderson said. “KCPR is important to my college experience – I wanted an event that would be exciting for the DJs.”
The event has been dubbed the KCPR Garden Party because two other venues on Garden Street will also be open. Initially they wanted to close off a section of Garden Street but there was not enough room, Culbertson said. The hope is that next year the festival will be bigger.
The Garden Party features the bands Hella, The Dead Science, Rahim, The Advantage, The Jai Alai Savant and Magneto.
“There’s not really another music festival in SLO,” journalism sophomore and KCPR DJ Graham Culbertson said. “The opportunity doesn’t really come up. Most of these bands don’t really stop at SLO.”
KCPR is a nonprofit and student-run radio station that prides itself in having “something for everyone,” Anderson said. Proceeds from the festival will go towards bringing more music to San Luis Obispo.
“Live music is a huge part of what we want to do in this community,” Anderson said. “KCPR has a very eclectic format. We actually have a lot of listeners in the community, not just the campus. In fact, we want more students to listen.”
The Garden Party also aims to create some publicity for the station.
“A lot of students don’t know we’re here or don’t really listen to the radio anymore,” Culbertson said.
Fliers for the festival have been posted along the coast from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz, the Cal Poly and in downtown San Luis Obispo. Culbertson said the station is expecting 150 to 200 people to attend the festival, but he’s hoping for more and said students should take advantage of the different bands that are going to be in attendance.
KCPR Garden Party tickets are $21 pre-sale and $25 at the door.
Linnaea’s Cafe will also be featuring local acts such as Neon Joseph and The Louvre for a free all-ages from 2 to 8 p.m.