This year students and community members will end the summer on a high note with the sounds of singer-songwriter, Eric Hutchinson at Palousafest — an annual street fair and concert that starts the fall semester.
Jeff Lipsky | Courtesty
Hutchinson earned recognition with his 2007 album “Sounds Like This” featuring popular songs “Rock and Roll” and “OK, It’s Alright With Me.” He released his most recent album, “Moving Up Living Down,” in April 2012.
Sammi Gunning, Vandal Entertainment board chair and summer coordinator for the Department of Student Involvement, said Hutchinson is the perfect combination of affordable and recognizable for the annual concert.
“We actually initially started out with a slightly lower budget and we had some issues finding an artist who was recognizable,” Gunning said. “They had good talent at the level we were looking at but not a lot of name recognition. Something that we want to do for students is bring them acts that they can tell their kids about when they get older.”
Gunning said when they raised the budget, Eric Hutchinson became a possible candidate.
“We were like ‘his music is fantastic, people know who he is,’ so it was just the perfect fit,” Gunning said.
Gunning and the Department of Student Involvement were able to contract Hutchinson for $17,000. Previous Palousafest headliners include We the Kings (2012) and Ra Ra Riot (2011).
“We don’t have quite as big of
a budget for this as we do for Finals
Fest, so he is a good balance between recognizable and he’ll make for a fun concert and he’s also affordable for us,” Gunning said.
Gunning said the other challenge in scheduling an artist for Palousafest is the inflexibility of the date. Palousafest occurs every year on the Saturday before fall classes begin.
The concert, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 8 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 24 on the Tower Lawn following a street fair sponsored by the Department of Student Involvement.
The fair will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Sixth Street in front of the residence halls and will feature booths from community and campus organizations.
“Local businesses and student organizations will have tables set up where students can get information about certain organizations both on and off campus,” Gunning said. “A lot of places will be giving away free stuff and there will be free pizza and water courtesy of the Department of Student Involvement.”
Prior to the concert there will also be inflatable activities set up on the tower lawn for students and community members to enjoy.
“We’re having one of those bungee trampolines … a mechanical bull, a jousting one and an obstacle course and I think those are going to be a lot of fun,” Gunning said.
Gunning said a yet undecided local act will open for Hutchinson at 7 p.m.
“As of right now I have two potential bands, one from Moscow and one from Lewiston. Either way awesome local talent will be opening,” Gunning said.
Gunning said she is looking forward to the event because it is the first large-scale concert she has organized.
“I’m hoping everything goes forward without a hitch,” Gunning said. “The idea behind this event is a welcome to new students and a welcome back to returning students, and the idea that the event is to remind and reintroduce all of the resources that they have on campus so it’s a really unique and awesome event in that you get all of this information and then it ends with this really cool concert that’s absolutely free to students and the public.”
Kaitlyn Krasselt can be reached at arg[email protected]