Whether it is your first year at UF or your fifth, Heartwood Soundstage is welcoming all students back to the swamp with the music that Gainesville has to offer.
Heartwood Soundstage, 619 S. Main St., will be hosting a Back-to-School Festival on Saturday, Aug. 31 from 6 to 11 p.m.
The event is welcome to all ages providing, food and music. Vendors including vegan and vegetarian options like Radha’s Kitchen will serve food. The event will feature bands from all over Florida including King Complex, flipturn, Glass House Point, The Forum, The Hails and Driveaway.
Tickets will cost $10 online for students and friends of Heartwood, $12 online for everyone else, or $15 at the door. They are expecting between 500 and 600 people, said Yasmeen Benhallam, a marketing manager for Heartwood.
This event will be much larger compared to other Heartwood festivals of the past, Benhallam. She hopes the event will encourage UF students to interact more with the Gainesville community.
“A big goal for us in the past few months has been bringing the UF student body into the community as well so they can experience the arts and music scene that we have that’s so underappreciated here,” Benhallam said.
The Heartwood is working to expand the audience at their festivals through varied bookings, Benhallam said. Many of the performers are excited for students to be exposed to their music.
“We've performed at Heartwood a handful of times in the past two years and when we were invited to perform at an event of this magnitude, we couldn't say no,” said Robbie Kingsley, the 24-year-old lead singer of The Hails.
Nicole Touzan, 23, a Gainesville resident who works in marketing and design says she’s excited about the event because of all the great music.
“These bands are basically at the forefront of Florida's indie-alternative scene and being in a crowd at their concert makes it only that much more epic,” Touzan said.
On July 19, the band announced the release of their most recent single "Comet."
