Sammypalooza

What do Bearkats and Lifehouse have in common? Sammypalooza! More than 3,300 people battled heat, rain and humidity to gather at Johnson Coliseum Tuesday afternoon and experience the eight hour music festival.

The event included free food from local vendors and performances by nine different bands on three separate stages, creating a melting pot of music to please everyone in the crowd.

"We did a lot of surveys before hand to poll and see what groups people did want to bring," Angie Taylor, associate director for the department of student activities, said. "We had some indie pop, rock mixed with classic, kind of alternative rock and then country; we wanted to bring that too. And then of course Chalie Boy with the rap. I think we had a pretty good mixture."

The music mix included well-known headliners such as Story of the Year, Jack Ingram and Lifehouse, making Sammypalooza what some are calling one of the biggest events to ever hit Sam Houston. 

But an event this large comes at a hefty price. The budget for Sammypalooza exceeded $130,000 making it difficult to guarantee future events of this magnitude.

"I think based on the success of it we would love to have the event again," Taylor said. "The main thing is to get the funding to do it every year."

One way the financial aspect may be handled in the future is charging students for the tickets. Taylor said that a lot of feedback from students supports this idea and that it would open doors to bring in more well-known artists in the future. 

One student willing to pay for another Sammypalooza is SHSU Freshman Paisley Timm.

"I wouldn't pay tons of money because no one has much money in college, but definitely something," Timm said. "It was really fun. It was a good way to spend the last day before class."

With the amount of positive feedback from the spectators, vendors, and artists, Taylor deemed Sammypalooza a big success for the university.

"We didn't hear one negative complaint which is awesome," Taylor said. "Everybody involved said it was pretty much a flawless event and were really excited that an event of this caliber was coming back to Sam Houston."