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| Around Town |
 The Archives of Traditional Music
Indiana University, Morrison Hall 117 & 120
Monday - Friday 10 a.m. - Noon, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Founded by renowned Hungarian-American ethnographer George Herzog, the Archives of Traditional Music represent the world’s largest academic collection of ethnographic sound recordings, ranging from folk music on wax cylinders to the latest pop hits. The best part: most of the recordings are accessible to the public, so anyone can listen freely to thousands of recordings including Native American tribal chants and Delta bluesmen.
With its massive and ever-growing collection still needing reorganization, the Archives are a bit like America’s musical attic, overflowing with folk and jazz treasures still waiting to be discovered by new generations. – Peter Chen
 Lotus Music & Arts Festival
Normally in late September or early October (2008 date: Oct. 2-5)
$50 for a two-day pass
Every October, the local nonprofit Lotus Education and Arts Foundation holds The Lotus World Music & Arts Festival, a two-day multistage festival that brings the best world music acts to Bloomington, with performances ranging in unique styles from electronic world fusion to Tuvian throat singing to Latvian folk.
The festival began in 1994 as a one-evening affair with several hundred people attending. In 1995, it grew to three days, and by 1998 it became a five-day event drawing a crowd of 9,000. It has since been condensed to two days plus its opening-evening and closing-day programs but still brings in more than 10,000 people each year.
It was named after Lotus Dickey, an Indiana folk songwriter who was declared an Indiana State Treasure. Dickey was born in 1911 and grew up in Orange County, Indiana, a rural area that inspired him to write songs about the natural landscape. After he began composing his own songs in the 1930s, he took them on tour to musical festivals across the country as well as to local schools until his death in 1989.
About 30 artists perform each year and tickets run about $50 for a two-day pass. – Amanda Lowry
 WIUX Culture Shock
Normally in mid-April, (2008 date: April 19)
Free
WIUX Culture Shock, a day-long event put on by Indiana University’s student radio station every spring, brings onstage Bloomington’s best indie acts, as well as a few regional and national ones. The festival is popular among the community and students and features about a dozen up-and-coming acts throughout the day. The lineup for 2008 features acts as diverse as the neo-psychedelic Beach House and the eclectic and high-energy Chicago Afrobeat Project.
The event was started in 1991 by IU’s student-run radio station WIUS, which has since changed its call letters to WIUX. The station puts on Culture Shock each year to expose students to acts that wouldn’t normally come to IU or Bloomington. Its directors try to bring in a variety of music its DJs and radio audience are enjoying, including hip-hop, electronic and rock acts, among others.
Last year’s lineup lasted 12 hours – from 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. – and was held in a tent set up on a campus meadow, with the abnormally chilly April weather being set off by outdoor heaters. It featured such nationally acclaimed acts as Xiu Xiu and Sunset Rubdown.
The Culture Shock festival brings out about 1,000 students each year, and admission is free. – Amanda Lowry
Little 500
Normally the second weekend in April, (2008 date: April 11-12)
$25 for the race, $25-30 for concerts
The Little 500 bike race, held annually in April since 1951, has come to be known as the “World’s Greatest College Weekend.” Teams from mostly Greek campus organizations face off in this “little” Indianapolis 500, drawing celebrities such as Lance Armstrong and Bob Hope to cheer on teams.
The race inspired the 1979 movie “Breaking Away,” written by Indiana University graduate Steve Tesich, who won an Academy Award for the original screenplay. It was also nominated for four other Oscars, including Best Picture. The plot addresses tensions between IU students and young Bloomington town members, with the non-student “Cutters” team proving its members’ worth in the Little 500 race.
The celebrating that takes place in the week leading up to the race is as important as the event itself. The IU Auditorium brings in big-name concerts each year, such as The Roots and Feist, with Greek houses often holding smaller concerts with performers that have included Something Corporate and Three 6 Mafia in recent years.
Of course, the most notorious part of the Little 500 is the alcohol. The majority of the area surrounding this “dry” campus is soaked in free-flowing booze for the entire week. – Amanda Lowry
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This section's contents are produced entirely by student journalists, brought to Billboard.com by UWIRE, the leading provider of student-generated content. UWIRE aims to identify and promote the brightest young content creators and deliver their work to a larger audience via professional media partners such as Billboard.com. Visit UWIRE.com to learn more. |
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- Amherst, Massachusetts
- Athens, Georgia
- Austin, Texas
- Bloomington, Indiana
- Iowa City, Iowa
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Los Angeles, California
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Nashville, Tennesse
- Omaha, Nebraska
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Indiana University
This town profile was produced entirely by student journalists from The Indiana Daily Student, the leading news source for the Indiana University community. You can learn more about the individual student contributors by visiting their profiles on UWIRE.com:
Text: Drew Anderson, Nathan Brown, Peter Chen, Alex Cohen, Doug Evans, Leah Linder, Amanda Lowry, Stefania Marghitu
Photos: Photo credit for all the non-band photos - Chris Pickrell. Band photos are courtesy of the respective bands.
Video: Rob Schmidt
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