By: Julia Vodyanyuk
Students from all over Ottawa came to the Algonquin Commons theatre on Sept. 12 to see indie bands Passion Pit, Young Galaxy headline as a part of Gonq Fest presented by the Algonquin Student Association.
The energetic show also featuring guest DJ Brains4Brkfst had students flocking to Algonquin to get a taste of the amazing artists that the SA manages to bring to the college.
The Algonquin SA has had an impressive history of artists come through the school in recent years such as K-Os, The Sheepdogs, Mac Miller, Down With Webster and even more recently Lights.
“We have a team of people here, we draw a wide sort of net of resources, we’re in constant communication with a number of agents,” said Bill Kitchen, events programmer for Algonquin College on how the SA gets artists to the school, “each agency has sort of a roster of artists,”
New, interesting and returning artists draw students to Algonquin and make the school more interesting.
“It’s good to bring big artists to the school because it promotes it and more people will want to come and get familiar with the campus,” said Cynthia Hannigan, first year victimology student.
The promotions team at the SA helps students get familiar with the artists that they bring to the school.
“I am now paying attention to who is coming [to Algonquin],” said Priti Zacharian, first year geographic information systems student, “I am definitely going to keep my eye open.”
The SA always tries to get plenty of student’s input on which artists are brought through the college and values the opinion of who goes to their shows.
“You’re constantly trying to reach out to students because ultimately that’s what all these shows are about – they’re designed to reach out to students and create connections to their school experience,” said Kitchen, “We would like as active a dialogue as we can with our students,”
The SA will continue to bring artists big and small to the college through the SA and continue keeping student suggestions in mind for future events.