Music Box plans first Good Vibes music festival

Lehigh will host its first-ever Good Vibes music festival this April to raise awareness and money for local organizations that help victims of sexual assault.

The music festival, which will be held on Goodman Campus, is an all-day charity musical festival that will feature The Chainsmokers — a musical group — and other national acts spanning different genres. All proceeds will be donated to organizations in the area that deal with sexual assault.

Lehigh Greek life; Music Box, a student organization on campus with the goal of providing student music groups on campus with opportunities such as performances, networking and other resources; and Crowdplsr, an app that allows students to decide which events will take place the day of the festival, are all working together to help get in contact with the different local and regional acts that will come perform.

Evan Eckersley, the president of Music Box, who has been working since the end of last year to make this event a reality, said he believes the festival will be great for all students.

“We will be having all types of music throughout the day so it will truly be an event that any music listener can enjoy,” he said. “Additionally, we will have other activities going on throughout the day to add to the whole festival feel.”

As the president of music box, Eckersley is responsible for various activities related to the Good Vibes festival, such as gathering acts to fill the festival lineup.

“I provide some insight into the logistics behind concerts and events from the artist’s perspective,” Eckersley said. “In the coming weeks, I will also be rallying the non-Greek community to the cause by pitching the event to various organizations and groups throughout campus.”

He also said fundraising efforts have been relatively successful considering that the semester-long campaign has just begun.

The current goal is to make sure students are aware of the event, and to get the buzz going through out campus.

Eckersley also shared his plans of opening the event to surrounding universities, saying that some of their contacts at other schools have expressed interest in being a part of the event.

“We have been working hard on this thing for a while now,” Aaron Monieson, ’17, the executive director of the festival, said at a press conference. “We’ve done the planning, gotten the necessary approvals, and reached out to artists and their agents, now all that’s left is to sell enough tickets so that we can bring this festival to Lehigh and help local victims of sexual assault.”

Jermey Gelman, ’17, has been responsible for various activities regarding the festival, such as spreading awareness through promotion of the kick-off party, which occurred a few weeks ago. He also helped with planning and blogging for the Crowdplsr blog.

“It is truly something special when you are able to contribute to an important cause while having fun and bringing good music to Lehigh,” Gelman said. “It will be an event that brings together the Lehigh and local college communities to have fun and raise money for women’s shelters.”

Eckersley has enjoyed the challenges he has been presented thus far, and said an event of this scale takes not only a ton of work, but a lot of creativity.

Since the festival is being crowdfunded through Crowdplsr, the only way the event is guaranteed to happen is if 2,000 students from Lehigh and other surrounding universities purchase tickets. If a student buys a ticket and the festival ends up not taking place, the student will not lose his or her money, because they money is not withdrawn from an individual’s bank account until the festival is definite.

In addition, anyone who buys a ticket before the end of October will be entered into a raffle to win backstage passes.