Thousands of University of Wisconsin-Madison students and community members took to Langdon Street Saturday, helping to transform it into the city’s largest concert venue for a day.
More than 6,500 people bought tickets to the second annual Revelry Music and Arts Festival, a number that far surpassed last year’s 3,050 attendees.
Ticket sales approached the festival’s maximum capacity of 7,000 people, a turnout Revelry Executive Director and UW-Madison sophomore Josh Levin said exceeded his expectations for the event.
“I think that just shows that there’s such potential for a show like this to happen year after year and [it] can get astronomically larger,” Levin said and added jokingly, “I’m sure my advisors don’t want to hear that because they had their hands full this year, but I think it’s honestly just beginning.”
Levin and a team of approximately 20 student members of Revelry’s executive, marketing and operating teams were part of the major planning process. Eighty other student-volunteers worked the festival Saturday.
“Part of why I love doing this is it allows so many people to become a part of a really big process,” he said.
Levin added the overwhelming majority of feedback he has received has been positive, with the only negative comments coming from those who view Revelry as “an affront” to the Mifflin Street Block Party.
Between noon and midnight, Revelry featured eight acts on the main Langdon Street stage with 11 additional performances on the Memorial Union Terrace Stage.
While many students expressed the most excitement at the prospect of seeing the festival’s headliners, Waka Flocka Flame and Dillon Francis, Madison resident Dan Roth came to see UW-Madison junior Jack Ringhand kick off the event at the Terrace.
“I went to high school with Jack,” Roth said. “He’s one of my best friends, and so it was really cool to see him play over there.”
Levin said the crowd, which was monitored by officers from the university and city police departments, was generally peaceful.
Senior Jon Criter, who was in the front row at the Waka Flocka Flame concert, said the throng of people was relatively manageable.
“[The crowd is] a little pushy, but they are just excited, so you can’t get mad,” Criter said.
Junior Carly Johnson, however, described the crowd as “very violent,” saying Revelry was more “dirty” compared to Mifflin.
“I wish [other attendees] would be more [respectful] of space,” Johnson said. “I’ve gotten pushed to the ground … I have bruises on my side.”
Senior Carina Muir said it was hard to compare Revelry to “the real Mifflin” she never experienced, adding she greatly enjoyed the Waka Flocka Flame concert.
Levin said he foresees Revelry continuing into the future.
“This is an event for the students and should only happen if the students want it to happen and there is no clearer way of seeing that than selling over 5,500 tickets to students,” he said.
Jackie Bannon, Daniella Emanuel and Dana Kampa contributed to this report.
