CAB students prepare for TigerFest
By Theresa Pratt, Staff Writer
Towson University students will gather at TU Arena tonight for TigerFest’s concert. The annual celebration is organized by the Towson Campus Activities Board and student workers prepare far in advance to bring the event to campus.
This year rappers JT and Toosii will headline. Rapper NLE Choppa was initially scheduled to perform, but cancelled his appearance according to a CAB Instagram post. Luckily, CAB was able to secure Toosii for the night.
Every year CAB hosts events in the week leading up to TigerFest. This year had an inflatable obstacle course, a summer-camp themed promo event, a late night brunch and StreetFest.
All of CAB’s members are Towson University students. They start planning in the fall semester and follow the team’s mission statement of “work hard, play harder.”
But for Festival Coordinator Jada King, planning starts even earlier. She first has to select what events will lead up to the concert, find performers for the concert and purchase materials and merchandise.
“Communicating with vendors and getting everybody on the same accord is probably the most challenging,” King said.
CAB members work with an agent to contact an artist’s team. From there, depending on how much each artist charges, CAB will book its chosen performers.
Then it’s time to pick the week-long events leading up to the concert. CAB looks at events that have done well in the past while trying to not repeat any. After members submit ideas, they vote on the event that they think will have the best turnout.
“A list of 10 to 15 ideas are proposed to us and then we come together to start the process of elimination,” CAB member Sasha Kouat-Lopatey said.
Many other CAB members help throughout the process. Graphic Designer Kyeli Minke joined the team to use her creativity to help with advertisement, and Ajah Collier joined to help with marketing since she’s interested in pursuing it as a career. She said seeing almost 800 people attend one of their events was a really great feeling.
All four CAB members agreed that the best part of the process was seeing the event day-of unfold.