It started as a chilly spring afternoon, an air of excitement and small groups of people scattered upon the grass wrapped in sweaters and blankets, expectant. Saturday night Anderson University hosted Somnium, the student-led music festival.
A student at the event said they were most excited to hear original music from the artists on campus as Somnium allows students to present never heard before music. Another one said, “It is always wonderful to see the talent on this campus displayed through the various disciplines.”
Somnium was created in 2022 by Paige Anstead (‘23) and Cameron Walters (‘22) as part of a creative project. Now it’s become one of the main musical attractions of Anderson University, bringing members from the Anderson community to enjoy a wide selection of musical expressions.
This year Izzy Steenberg (pictured left), a junior Music Business and Spanish major, directed Somnium, reimagining the event as a musical festival. “We decided to shift this year from a concert in Reardon to an outdoor music festival because we wanted to give the artists more time to showcase their work, as well as growing the show.”
Steenberg also provided some insight into what it takes to run such an event. “Producing a live show means you wear a million different hats. You are the artist manager for six artists of the show, you are overseeing marketing, finances, tech and building setlists and thinking of marketing plans for your artists, but you are also trying to organize a street fair and keep the show on budget.”
Steenberg expressed wanting to continue building up the festival by including art galleries and dance showings as well as involving more departments and groups from Anderson University. “The goal is to become an anchor event for second semester at AU,” Steenberg said.
This year the lineup consisted of six artists: Elliandra, Makenna Marcus, Kimberlee Joy, Julia Balser, Holly Henke, and Than. Each one brought their own genre of music and presented a meddle of original music and covers.
This original music is one of the pillars of Somnium. “I really like to experiment and take extra care to serve the music,” Than said. “Usually my music has a vintage feel, often categorized as blues-rock or retro-soul with heavy influence from jazz and funk and a healthy dose of jam band.”
Another artist, Elliandra (pictured above) said, “I would describe my music first and foremost as authentic, sonically and lyrically!”
Although it is principally a music festival, Somnium also allows new artists to show off their music and provides them with the motivation and connections to record their own music. Artist Kimberlee Joy said, “I try to come with an open and honest heart when it comes to writing [and] I hope that the Lord allows me to record some music soon and release it, especially after Somnium and the beautiful responses that many of those songs received.”
Than, Julia Balser and Elliandra have also already released singles, “Send Me a Song”, “Change Your Mind”, and “i miss you, but i love you more” respectively.