By: Shane Bagot, Follow South Jersey
GLASSBORO — What started as just a capstone project for Rowan University students Alexander Quinn and Liz Baginski has grown into so much more. That project is Midnight Sun Collective. The event coordination and booking collective fused to create a welcoming environment for creatives.
The two students have known each other since their time as theater majors. Now, though, they have fully switched to music industry majors. They have been fully a part of the South Jersey music scene for multiple years by going to shows and creating music.
They rekindled last year as they had classes together. As they were discussing their capstone projects, they thought it would be great to work together.
Baginski makes indie pop and folk, which isn’t highlighted much in the scene. The collective used this as their way to build a brand off it.
“I’m really passionate about showcasing different genres. We have so many talented people from so many different genres, like solo artists, rap artists, hip hop, folk, and indie. All these different areas and the scene here don’t always showcase all that, but we have a great community. I think I really wanted to showcase people that don’t always get that opportunity,” said Baginski.
Quinn feels the same way. They are more on the side of post-hardcore and metal. There is a wish for more diversity in the scene. A feeling that it is important to give different types of bands and artists opportunities to be exposed to different types of crowds.
So far, Midnight Sun has put on multiple shows in the last few months, like an open mic night at Rowan’s student center in December and two shows in Philadelphia at a bar, one in December and another in February.
Despite going well, these shows proved to be learning experiences.
“Time has been one of the biggest things that has been a learning curve. I always thought that I was pretty good at time management in the past, but when planning shows like this. It kind of starts to get away from you, especially with all the moving parts,” said Quinn.
They would need to take these lessons learned and apply them to their biggest event yet, The Nite Lite Festival. This is a free music festival on March 27th from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. being held on University Green at Rowan University. The festival will have six bands, over 50 vendors, and food trucks.
The idea being that the music will be going from “lite” to “nite” as it gets darker. Taking both Baginski’s and Quinn’s music backgrounds. Music gets progressively heavier as it moves towards hardcore and metal as the night draws nearer. Also, being dressed to the theme.
They wanted to do something different from a run-of-the-mill, typical festival.
“We wanted to sort of create a themed and immersive experience through the festival. Because one, everybody loves things that are themes, and two, it could be a really cool way to expose people to different types of music. Even just share a space with people who like different types of music,” said Quinn.
They get help with setup, but it has still been a nerve-wracking experience. Quinn and Baginski feelas if the festival and all that comes with running one is creeping up on them. However, that has not stopped the excitement from it all to come through.
“I think it is truly for me, going to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my musical career thus far. I put up shows in the past before this, but this is the first time that I put up something of this caliber,” said Baginski.
While the focus is on this festival, there have been discussions and real ideas to continue past the project, with the potential to make it bigger in the future.
The main goal of the collective is to bring people together with music. Feeling a shift in the scene in the past few years, they want to create a comfortable and safe space for people to enjoy the moment.
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