Crochella
Leader. Designer. Resident Assistant. Musician. 2023.
All-campus music festival featuring four student bands and over 500 attendees.
Overview
Crochella made its Stanford debut on April 8, 2023. This event was one of Stanford's first neighborhood events, which was a recent change to the residential system on campus in which each quarter a group of campus houses hosts an event to build community. Crochella was designed to be a student lead music festival, and its name is a combination of Crothers, the dorm at which the event was hosted, and Coachella, a popular music festival each April. The debut event established a campus tradition and has become a yearly tradition for the school, securing a budget of over $100,000 after its successful debut.
Crochella Audience during Banana Bred's performance, 8 April 2023
Concept Development
The Goal
As a resident assistant for the Crothers dorm during the 2022-2023 academic year I had the privilege of getting to meet residential leaders and enthusiastic first years at Stanford who helped make this event a reality. We began planning during January of 2023 which involved collaborating with some incredible student lighting and sound experts, in addition to campus financial and residential leaders to secure funding. Planning the aesthetics and decor of the event was also important to our success as we aimed to create a unique space at which people felt that they had escaped campus. In order to do this we intentionally positioned the stage, placed tables for crowd control, and created balloon features within the sectioned off courtyard. See below for progress pictures in addition to photographs taken at the event by talented student photographers.
Flyer used to promote the event around campus, both digitally and physically.
Progress Pictures
Event Photos
Crochella was a huge success thanks to the incredible student effort across the board. From lighting to sound to student performers and planners, we had around 500 attendees and received student acclaim across campus. See below for pictures from the event.
Reflection
This project is one of my favorites I have worked on. Collaborating with students and faculty all across campus in order to create an event that brought so much joy to so many people was such a fulfilling experience. Watching my residents take on big responsibilities and pride in the event and take on more leadership roles the following year made me excited to see what is to come from this class of students. This project was an opportunity for me to leverage design and leaderships skills in a new environment, but also an opportunity to apply these skills to bring people together - from seniors to freshman so many people found joy at Crochella and I am so proud of all the work we put in as well as the incredible support I was given by campus faculty and student partners.