Kazzuzapalousa

WSU hosts art and music festival, encourages local participation

Kazzuzapalousa. It may be a difficult word to spell, but the event behind the word promises an entertaining afternoon for all.

KZUU, Washington State University’s radio station, will host the music and art festival Saturday. Festival Manager Sasha Gonzalez, who is also a manager for KZUU, said she and a former station manager started planning Kazzuzapalousa last year. She said one of the goals of this festival is to showcase local artists.

“On our radio station, we’re non-commercial and that’s our same M.O., we’re trying to get bands we think are amazing showcased,” Gonzalez said. “We want people to hear them and know who they are.  With our festival we have that same idea, but since it’s the music and arts festival, we also have the idea of showing off local talent artistically.”

She said the festival will feature local artists, including some students from the WSU Fine Arts Department, who will sell their work throughout the day.

Festival participants can also get more involved with the art through interactive art projects if they would like to be more creative, Gonzalez said.

Kazzuzapalousa starts at 2 p.m. Saturday at the BellTower in downtown Pullman. Gonzalez said she is expecting more than 300 attendees for the festival so far. Tickets are $8 for students now, but will be $12 the day of the event. They are available online for $10, which includes a $2 fee for service charges. There will be a variety of bands 2 p.m. to midnight, Gonzalez said. She said she thinks the ticket cost is a low price for the variety of music and experiences at the festival.

“There’s going to be a bunch of different genres — everything from hip-hop to jazz to R&B to indie to punk to electronic to loud rock,” she said. “Everyone who will come to the festival will be able to see something or hear something that they enjoy or is their personal favorite.”

Gonzalez said she has a committee of 16 KZZU DJs helping her with the logistics of this project, including fundraising, selling tickets, arranging schedules and talking to the featured bands.

She said another one of her goals is for the festival to become more connected with the Pullman community, so there will be some local businesses at the event.

“South Fork Food Truck will be there, an old snapshot photo booth will be there doing free photos in black, white and color,” she said. “That was Kazzuzapalousa’s aim and goal, to bring up and coming artists and showcase local businesses and talent at the same time.”

Gonzalez said she and her committee are trying to get people from outside Pullman to participate. She said the reason for calling the festival “Kazzuzapalousa” was partially to include the word “Palouse” in the name.

“We’re trying to get Moscow invited too,” she said. “We definitely wanted everyone on the Palouse to feel like they were a part of it and have a community feel.”

She said she is excited for this festival, and thinks it will be a good event for college students, because they enjoy festivals. She said the first festival will be the start of an annual event.

“We love Pullman and we love WSU, and we think the students deserve to have a thing to look forward to every year, a night to just do everything like eat, drink, listen to music,” Gonzalez said. “What more could you want?”

Daphne Jackson can be reached at [email protected]

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