A music festival featuring six different bands will replace Southwestern’s traditional Large Act Concert this spring. The festival will be held April 29 both inside and around the Corbin J. Robertson Center.

The headline artist for the festival is Matt & Kim, a duo act from Brooklyn, N.Y., that played at the 2010 Austin City Limits Music Festival. Matt & Kim is an indie pop band that uses electronic synthesizers and an acoustic drum set to create an energetic but minimal sound and fun and enthusiastic performances. The band won the 2009 Best Video Award at the mtvU Woodie Awards and is nominated this year for Best Live Performance. Matt & Kim has toured the entire country and recently released its third album titled “Sidewalks” in November 2010.

Other bands lined up to perform at the festival are The Octopus Project, Mexican Institute of Sound, Del the Funky Homosapien, The Black and White Years, and The Bright Light Social Hour.

The Bright Light Social Hour is a band that started at Southwestern. Its current members include 2007 graduate Jack O’Brien and 2005 graduate Curtis Roush. The group was featured on the cover of the Feb. 11 Austin Chronicle and  took home awards for Band of the Year, Album of the Year and Song of the Year at the 2011 Austin Music Awards.

The Austin DJ group Flying Turns, featuring 2008 Southwestern graduate Haydon Bagot, will keep music going between performances.

Outdoor events will start at 3:30 p.m. and the doors will open at 5 p.m. Wristbands will enable festival-goers to go in and out of the Robertson Center to advantage of the food trucks and other booths outside the center.

Ticket sales for Southwestern students, faculty, staff and alumni will begin Feb. 24 and general admission tickets will be sold beginning March 1. There are several options for purchasing tickets:

1.      Tickets can be purchased online with a credit card at www.theclusterfest.com

2.      Tickets can be purchased in person at the Southwestern University Office of Student Activities on the third floor of the McCombs Campus Center in Suite 340 Monday – Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

3.      A limited number of tickets will be available for sale at Waterloo Records

4.      Tickets can also be purchased at the door, if still available.

Student tickets are $10, faculty/staff/alumni tickets are $15 and general admission tickets are $22. All tickets sold the day of the festival will be $22. 

“$22 is a great price to see six bands,” said Andrew Ivy, a senior who is one of three student co-chairs of the festival.

Ivy said all of the bands featured on the lineup were selected because of their student appeal, their diverse sounds and their reputations for putting on exciting live shows.

“The Southwestern community has always wanted a good blend of artists, and with this festival format we can allow for diversity and a breath of quality performances to happen at once. We want to provide the Southwestern community with what they’ve always wanted.”

Senior Natalie Phillips-Perkoff and junior Harrison Glaser are the other two student co-chairs of the festival.

“This is going to be the most high-energy show we’ve ever put on,” Glaser said. “It’s going to be infectious, and ridiculous and awesome!”

For more information about the concert, visit www.theclusterfest.com or call the Office of Student Activities at 512-863-1345.