MTSU students experience a different kind of Bonnaroo
MANCHESTER, Tenn. –MTSU students gain hands-on experience at Bonnaroo Festival.
According to a news release, a group of students from Middle Tennessee University are spending time at Bonnaroo Festival, but not to enjoy the fun, instead to work.
Students from the university are taking part in a partnership that has existed between the school and festival since 2014 and allows both parties to benefit from the big event.
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A group of MTSU students, faculty, staff and administrators take a break Friday, June 17, at the 2022 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival being held Thursday-Sunday, June 16-19, in Manchester, Tenn. MTSU returned to the festival this year as part of its ongoing partnership with the event to provide College of Media and Entertainment students with real-world experience. The group is standing in front of the university’s $1.4 million Mobile Production Lab, fondly known as “The Truck,” which serves as the home base for the team of MTSU students, faculty and staff providing audiovisual and streaming support of performances as well producing original content at the festival. (MTSU photo by Jonathan Trundle)
A group of MTSU students, faculty, staff and administrators take a break Friday, June 17, at the 2022 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival being held Thursday-Sunday, June 16-19, in Manchester, Tenn. MTSU returned to the festival this year as part of its ongoing partnership with the event to provide College of Media and Entertainment students with real-world experience. The group is standing in front of the university’s $1.4 million Mobile Production Lab, fondly known as “The Truck,” which serves as the home base for the team of MTSU students, faculty and staff providing audiovisual and streaming support of performances as well producing original content at the festival. (MTSU photo by Jonathan Trundle)
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A group of MTSU students, faculty, staff and administrators show their True Blue spirit Friday, June 17, at the 2022 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival being held Thursday-Sunday, June 16-19, in Manchester, Tenn. MTSU returned to the festival this year as part of its ongoing partnership with the event to provide College of Media and Entertainment students with real-world experience. (MTSU photo by Jonathan Trundle)
A group of MTSU students, faculty, staff and administrators show their True Blue spirit Friday, June 17, at the 2022 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival being held Thursday-Sunday, June 16-19, in Manchester, Tenn. MTSU returned to the festival this year as part of its ongoing partnership with the event to provide College of Media and Entertainment students with real-world experience. (MTSU photo by Jonathan Trundle)
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MTSU senior Kayla Bradshaw, right, a video and film production major from Lexington, S.C., films a performance Friday, June 17, at the 2022 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival being held June 16-19 in Manchester, Tenn. Bradshaw and other students are working at the festival as part of the university’s ongoing partnership with the event to provide College of Media and Entertainment students with real-world experience. (MTSU photo by James Cessna)
MTSU senior Kayla Bradshaw, right, a video and film production major from Lexington, S.C., films a performance Friday, June 17, at the 2022 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival being held June 16-19 in Manchester, Tenn. Bradshaw and other students are working at the festival as part of the university’s ongoing partnership with the event to provide College of Media and Entertainment students with real-world experience. (MTSU photo by James Cessna)
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MTSU Provost Mark Byrnes, left, and Greg Pitts, journalism and strategic media school director, stand at the entrance of the university’s $1.4 million Mobile Production Lab during their visit Friday, June 17, to the 2022 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. The lab, fondly known as “The Truck,” serves as the home base for the team of MTSU students, faculty and staff providing audiovisual and streaming support of performances as well producing original content at the festival being held Thursday-Sunday, June 16-19. (MTSU photo by Andrew Oppmann)
MTSU Provost Mark Byrnes, left, and Greg Pitts, journalism and strategic media school director, stand at the entrance of the university’s $1.4 million Mobile Production Lab during their visit Friday, June 17, to the 2022 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. The lab, fondly known as “The Truck,” serves as the home base for the team of MTSU students, faculty and staff providing audiovisual and streaming support of performances as well producing original content at the festival being held Thursday-Sunday, June 16-19. (MTSU photo by Andrew Oppmann)
The event offers Media and Entertainment students to earn college credits for their work in video and sound production at the festival’s event stages. They also gain experience in the field of content creation, digital reporting, as well as video and photo storytelling.
The year’s team of about 25 students are producing content at Bonnaroo under the guidance of MTSU faculty and staff.
In a statement from the release, Media and Entertainment Dean Beverly Keel stated “This is not playtime for them. This is really, I would say boots on the ground, but flip-flops on the ground.”
Bonnaroo Festival requested for students and faculty from MTSU’s Media Arts and Recording Industry departments to help them this year by doing video and audio production of the Hulu streaming service’s late-night DJ productions, which Keel described as a “next-level, new chapter.”
Greg Pitts, journalism and strategic media school director said of the partnership, “It is absolutely an extension of the classroom, taking what they have been talking about and putting it to work.”
One MTSU student was surprised by what working the event really meant.
“I want to get hands-on live productions and concerts experience. New locations and trying to figure out what works best where — and I never thought I’d be able to do it here,” she said. “I knew we did Bonnaroo, but not at this level,” said Kayla Bradshaw, a video and film production senior from Lexington, South Carolina.
The Bonnaroo event’s partnership with the university definitely allows students special opportunities that some other schools may not offer.
University Provost Mark Byrnes said, “It really helps explain why it is a world-famous, world-renowned college — because your students in your college get opportunities that they just cannot get somewhere else.”
If you are interested in the work the students are doing with the festival, follow some of their progress by visiting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIsyx5il13o.
