KTRU Outdoor Show to Promote Local Music, Student Installations

By Ali Wilt     4/21/17 12:51pm

What do Chicago rappers, Houston jazz bands and South Indian religious music have in common? They will all be featured at KTRU’s upcoming 26th Outdoor Show. The all-day festival of music, food and art in the central quad will also celebrate KTRU’s 50th anniversary. The April 22 event will bring a variety of musicians to campus, and will give participants a chance to interact with various campus art organizations.

Emily Foxman, a Lovett College junior and Outdoor Show event coordinator, said the show has a diverse lineup.

“This year's show is especially exciting — the lineup is extensive and promises for a great turnout. We've recently released the artists, and are lucky enough to have co-headliners of Jamila Woods and Saba, two Chicago artists on the rise who have worked with, among others, folks like Chance the Rapper,” Foxman said.

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Jamila Woods, one of Pitchfork Media’s best artists of 2016, was featured on Chance’s hit song “Sunday Candy,” as well as “Blessings” from “Coloring Book.” Saba also collaborated with Chance on “Everybody’s Something” from the critically acclaimed “Acid Rap” mixtape.

KTRU’s Outdoor Show will showcase both on-campus and local talent.

“As always, we also have tried to focus on Houston's music scene, too, this year getting three local bands in addition to Steve Cox's Beard, the winner of Rice's Battle of the Bands,” Foxman said. “Our local acts and mid-liners are artists who are going to showcase several different types of music.”

Foxman anticipates the Outdoor Show will expose students to music outside of chart-topping genres. Bayonne, an electronic solo project from Austin, will be performing, as well as The Mayapuris, a Florida-based group that showcases Kirtan, a form of meditative Sanskrit chanting. Other groups include Free Radicals, voted one of Houston’s best jazz bands by The Houston Free Press and indie rock group Rose Ette.

“This concert’s pretty neat because a lot of the acts aren’t traditional ‘mainstream’ stuff that you would find just by listening to popular radio stations,” Foxman said. “They’re really talented performers and it’s really fun to watch how people respond to and interact with their music.”

This year’s Outdoor Show will expand to include art installations by various student groups, including pieces from the Matchbox Gallery, the Moody Center for the Arts and the Arts and Engineering Group. Festival-goers will be able to interact with projections, decorate a large “50” with drawings and stickers, and watch a large origami structure “breathe.” Foxman is most excited about the Moody Center’s “Toilets as Public Art” piece, where mostly art-focused student organizations will decorate toilets from a Re-use Warehouse as part of a series called ‘Give a Shit About…

Along with music and art, the KTRU Outdoor Show will host various food trucks throughout the day, as well as a beer garden for those 21 and over. As in years past, the festival will run from 2-9 p.m., with free admission for all ages. 

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