On Saturday, the free bluegrass and folk music festival Philfest brought in three bands and artists to perform on Norris East Lawn. The headliner this year was the Deadly Gentlemen, a bluegrass quintet based in Boston.
More than 200 audiences enjoyed refreshing music and the breeze on a precious sunny afternoon. The first warm up band was Sunnyside Up, a bluegrass trio from Chicago. The chemistry between the mandolinist and the guitarist was the highlight of their performance. Todd Kessler, a Chicago-based singer songwriter, came on the stage as the second warm up. Kessler appeared on Season 3 of NBC's The Voice.
Philfest was named after Phil Semmer, a former member of SEED (Students for Ecological and Environmental Development). In 2000, Semmer passed away in a car accident in Australia while he was studying abroad. SEED decided to host a free bluegrass and folk music festival in memory of Semmer, and named the festival "Philfest."
"He was a big fan of bluegrass, a big fan of just like music festivals," said Madeline Miller, the co-president of SEED. Before Phil passed away, he planned to work for the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank in Colorado. "All of our T-shirt sales and any donations we get go towards the Rocky Mountain Institute," Miller said.
One of the goals of Philfest is to raise more awareness around environmental sustainability on campus. "Northwestern is starting to establish itself as a university that is interested in sustainability, but we're far behind than a lot of other major universities," Miller said.
At the music festival, different environmental student groups set up booths to spread awareness about the environment. The groups include SEED, EcoReps, Wild Roots, PWild, ASG Sustainability, etc.
EcoReps set up a special "smoothie bike," which attracted a lot of attention. The smoothie blender was placed at the back of the bike, and the students' kinetic energy from biking served as the energy source for the blender. Students were also having fun making their own tie-dye shirts.
The Deadly Gentlemen performed songs including "Thieving In the Evening," a song from their new album that will be released on May 8th. "Seeing your smiley faces makes it all worth it," said Stash Wyslouch, guitarist and vocalist of the quintet. "We came out just for this gig," he said. The Deadly Gentlemen have tour dates and music festivals lined up all the way from May to August. "We hope to come back," Wyslouch said.
"It's so good to see college kids enjoying bluegrass music and just chilling," said Greg Liszt, the banjo player and the founder of the group. Liszt started playing banjo when he was 15, and graduated from Yale University and M.I.T with a degree in Molecular Biology. Near the end of his graduate studies, he made a choice to play music full-time.
"Philfest is definitely meant to get students outdoors and just enjoying life," said Shelly Tan, the Marketing and Media Co-Director at A&O Productions.