Rows and rows of classic carnival games fill Packard Stadium. Students can find anything from spray paint artists to the traditional dart games. Food trucks provide a source of fuel for the anxious crowd that awaits a performance by Panic! At The Disco. Devilpalooza 2015 has set the stage for a jam-packed evening that students from all four campuses are sure to enjoy.
Organized by Arizona State University’s Programming and Activities Board (PAB), Devilpalooza has been putting on concerts with big name artists for six years. Supply chain management junior Sarah Harrison acts as the current PAB president for the Tempe Campus and is one of the operation coordinators for Devilpalooza this year.
“Devilpalooza can kind of be whatever we want it to be,” Harrison says. “In the grand scheme we’ve kind of looked at it as a concert portion and then some kind of pre-activation that normally involves a carnival.”
PAB has worked with a variety of student and professional organizations to put together different activities for students before the concert. Since PAB has offices on all four campuses one of their main goals is to bring together multiple organizations from across the university to organize the large-scale event.
“We have people from the varying locations, which is something that is important to us because Devilpalooza is run by PAB as a whole and PAB is one university organization,” Harrison says.
Doors for the event open at 6 p.m. and the concert is set to begin at 9 p.m. The performance will be a freestanding concert. However, there will be a handicap-viewing platform for those who need it.
PAB worked with a program called Selective Artist Association to select this year’s main stage performer. Based on the event’s date and performers’ availability the program matched the event with a number of artists. Engineering management sophomore Colin Gallacher serves as the president of PAB at the Polytechnic campus. He is also the other Devilpalooza operations coordinator.
“Working with Selective Artist Association has really helped us organize things quicker and seamlessly,” Gallacher says.
In addition to Panic! At The Disco a regional band out of Denver called The Epilogue will be the opening act for the night’s performance. Members of PAB came up with the artist while brainstorming ideas as early as this summer.
PAB is made up primarily of student workers that cover all angles of the event from sponsorships to promotions to event setup.
“So much of it is done by students themselves and it’s an even better part that they get all these opportunities at such a young age, especially for those of them that this is the type of career path they want to go on in life,” Harrison says.
Business management freshman Riggs Brown decided to attend Devilpalooza when his friend mentioned Panic! At The Disco was returning to the valley for another free concert. Brown was also happy to hear of all the additional activities going on before the concert.
“I saw the fact that there were food trucks and I’m a food truck junkie,” Brown says, “I would literally go hunting them down with my friends over summer break to see where we could find them.”
When asked if he’ll be one of the students to head straight to the main stage to wait for the concert to begin Brown declared that events such as Devilpalooza were intended to be experienced to the fullest.
“There’s so much else to do that I want to see the whole thing,” Brown says. “I’m not one to go show up for this one bit of an entire event, that seems silly to me.”
PAB is hoping to reach their target goal of 5,000 attendees. Last year’s attendance maxed out at 2,000 attendees over at the West Campus. Tickets are still available for students to reserve online. Students that are 18 and older also have the option of bringing along one non-ASU guest.
PAB has high hopes for the future of Devilpalooza. They plan to continue bringing big name performers such as Panic! At The Disco, and possibly create such a large event that it has to be held off campus.
“In the future we’re hoping for multiple big-ticket artists, maybe turn it into a whole weekend,” Gallacher says. “That’s years in the future though. We’re still looking for a sustainable model that helps us to bring in big ticket artists.”
Students who wish the reserve a ticket can visit http://devilpalooza.asu.edu/.
Reach the writer at mchavan1@asu.edu or via Twitter @manalichavan72.
