The Freret Street Festival occurred last weekend on Saturday March 25, 2023. It was the first time that Loyola students have been able to participate since 2019 due to the pandemic.
The Freret Street Festival featured 200 local vendors and had three stages of live music and spanned Freret between Napoleon and Valmont. The Soniat stage was managed by our very own Music Industry students with performances from current students and alumni all beginning at 11:00 A.M. until 6:00 P.M.
Almost everyone at the Soniat stage was Loyola affiliated or alums. The festival was booked by our very own Professor Mike Twillman to showcase Loyola talent as part of his Festival Production class. Senior Urban and Electronic Music Production Major Roy Gauranga was stage manager for the Soniat Stage. “Twillman was looking for whoever wanted to help out for our festival production class and was allocating jobs and I volunteered to take the stage manager position because I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and do something different.”
Roy is an artist and producer and wanted to try something new, this opportunity allowed him to take that position. “It was a very dope experience and got me the opportunity to get some of my talented friends on a stage,” Roy told me.
There were bands such as Comp4ny, Zariah Sims Collective, Aniya Teno, O’Baekey, and alumni DAVESTATEOFMIND.
