Auburn’s own DIY music festival AubFest had its seventh successful edition on Oct. 3 to 5, uniting the community with good music performed by regional bands. Starting as a simple idea by an Auburn University student, Ashley Spencer, the festival is now a non-profit 501(c)(3) and has quickly blossomed into an event that everyone looks forward to twice a year. While most attendees see it as a fun music festival to enjoy, many do not realize the amount of hard work put into it by so many Auburn University students.
AubFest is now run by three current students: Riley Dimon, Aiden-Calderon Wyant and Carter Zane. Although there are only three of them, the finished product of AubFest is truly impressive. This year, there were over 30 local and regional bands that performed.
Dimon, AubFest managing director, explained that it takes five months to plan and put the event together, including booking bands and performers.
“This time, we had three people,” Dimon said. “The work is as much as we put into it. In a way, the workload never changes. We can always anticipate and expect how much work we’re putting into it.”
One of the volunteers in charge of booking is Sally Little, a senior in commercial music. She researches bands, typically underrepresented performers, and reaches out to get them to perform.
“The spirit of AubFest is DIY,” Little said. “It’s to encourage local artists and let them know, ‘Hey, there’s a platform for you, like, here in your backyard.'”
The directors look at bands of all kinds of genres, including indie, pop and R&B, and see which bands will draw the most energy from the crowd. One of Little’s goals is to find bands that keep the energy high and make sure it flows with the other performances.
Although the directors are a huge part of the planning, they rely on many volunteers to help run the event smoothly. With their team of volunteers assigned to jobs, such as greeting, sound checking, stage managing, photography and selling merch, AubFest becomes the spectacular display of music every attendee sees.
One of the many important jobs are the stage assistants who make sure every performer is ready to go on time. Varun Viswanathan, a graduate student in electrical engineering, was a first-time stage assistant for AubFest this past October.
During the festival, Viswanathan would make sure that every performer set up their equipment and arrived to stage on time. He then helped them take down their equipment and get the stage ready for the next band. His role was essential in making sure every act remained on schedule.
“You gotta be on your toes all the time just to make sure that everything goes smoothly,” Viswanathan said. “Even then, you can have some kind of issues that could happen with the sound or the lighting systems that often happen.”
Another volunteer, now the production manager for AubFest, is Jason Owens, a junior studying theater. At his first AubFest, he served as the lighting designer and board operator. Now, he leads the stage setup and helps communicate with production companies to plan out what equipment is needed for each performer.
When the festival is over, the staff begin to review it.
“We're gonna review how the festival went, all the logistics, trying to figure out what we can do better,” Calderon-Wyant said. “What went wrong, what went great, what people like, stuff like that.”
Every year, they are dedicated to making the festival bigger. Dimon hopes to use more acres of their site, Boggin’ on the Plains, while Calderon-Wyant is planning on upgrading their new experimental stage, “The Grove,” and possibly adding even more stages.
This year, AubFest had its biggest attendance yet, with over 1,200 people showing up over two days. The staff expect attendance to continue to grow, especially with new marketing, such as commercials and possibly billboards, coming in the spring. However, they are always looking for more help.
“If you think three people can pull this off, wait till you see what 50 different people can do,” Dimon said.
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Katelyn Smith, sophomore majoring in journalism, is from Birmingham, Alabama. She has been with The Auburn Plainsman since the fall of 2025. Smith previously served as a lifestyle writer, and she is currently serving as the Lifestyle Editor.
