Columbia music lovers walked down the stairs of the Tapps Art Center for a night of Indie Grits music and were greeted with an abundance of sound. The death metal bass of Bathe could be heard from the Space Hall to their left while the quirky folk harmonicas brought by Paleface were heard in the Fountain Room to their right. Just a block down Main at the Main Street Public House, blue,girl was performing distinctive and passionate tunes.
And these were just the first three artists that performed Friday night. A total of nine played throughout the night, giving attendees diverse options for their listening experience. Other artists included Sequoyah Murray, Boulevards, WVRM, Black Tusk, King Vulture and Dear Blanca.
Justin Shafer, a fourth-year international business and entrepreneurship student, was most excited to see Black Tusk perform the finale in the Space Hall Friday night.
"I don't get too many fantastic metal shows in Columbia," Shafer said. "So it'll be fun to get in there and mosh a little bit."
Besides the variety of local music being performed, guests were able to enjoy dinner and drinks at the Main Street Public House while listening to the soulful sounds being performed. Guests could stroll through the upstairs art gallery of Tapps Art Center, or try out some of the video games set up on computers downstairs between the music venues. The video games were created by Indie Bits, a local "arts and education organization that aims to design and promote inclusive gaming experiences for all."
Ellen Jones, a fourth-year comparative literature and classics student, was attending the festival with WUSC. Jones is a public affairs director at WUSC and helps with fundraising as well as promoting the station within the community — on campus and throughout Columbia. Jones was an intern with Indie Grits last year and was able to network with them this year, allowing WUSC to work with the festival.
"There's always been a really big education component," Jones said. "That's actually something that WUSC and Indie Grits really share, is that our ... mutual goal is to educate the community on music and film and video games and helping age the Columbia community with art."
She described how the festival has changed over the years, originating as a film festival and growing to incorporate more art like music and video games with Indie Bits. Shafer explained how the festival has gotten bigger through more publicity since he last attended Indie Grits as a second-year student.
"I like to see that it's filling out the city as well, you know we're adding more venues on," Shafer said on Indie Grits' evolution through the year. "It's just fun to watch the Columbia arts community grow."
More music will be performed at the Saturday Night Music event to continue the four-day festival. The music will be performed in the same venues from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., this time featuring more punk and hip-hop.
"Columbia's a great city, it has a growing culture, a young population," Shafer said. "Just to see the USC students, especially, really get engaged in something like this would be a lot of fun moving forward."