AnnaBeth Crittenden, Campus Carrier Assistant Entertainment Editor
The 10th annual World Music and Dance Festival will be held on Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. in the Clara Bowl. The event will be held simultaneously with the Arts and Crafts Festival hosted by the Art Society.
The World Music and Dance Festival was organized by RISE, the Buddhist Studies Group and the Universalist Unitarians.
The students from these clubs organized the event, while supervised by Jim Watkins, associate professor of English, rhetoric and writing and Jen Corry, associate professor of foreign languages.
However, the students were able to contact and schedule the musicians, submit a budget and ultimately plan the concert.
Sophomore Megan Petrovich worked with her club, RISE, as she oversaw the process as a whole.
“The festival is such a big feat that it can be daunting at times during the beginning stages,” Petrovich said. “However, people were able to step up to the challenge and that really made things go smoother and let us enjoy seeing our event come to life and become something we could be really excited for.”
The Festival will feature 12 bands, musicians and dancers from a variety of different styles and countries. These vary from bluegrass bands to African pop. This year will feature more Latino style music, including the Nashville Salsa Orchestra.
Many Berry students and faculty will be performing at the festival including Sean Manion, Michael Clark and Thomas Orr. Watkins’ bluegrass band, Barbaric Yawps, will be opening the festival.
The musicians will be playing in a sequence for 14 hours throughout the day, as each group is allotted 30 minutes to an hour to perform their set.
The festival is open to all students. Students who may not have heard an international style of music before are especially encouraged to attend.
Watkins said the music at the festival will be very accessible and dance-able for students.
“If [the students] want to come and hear some good music that’s maybe a little different then what they’re used to listening to, this is going to be the place to come and hear it,” Watkins said.