Saturday, Nov. 8, from 2-6 p.m., WCWM Radio hosted the College of William and Mary’s Battle of the Bands, this year at the Crim Dell Meadow. The event was free and open to the whole Williamsburg community, and the Crim Dell Meadow was full of music enthusiasts. Spectators enjoyed the unseasonably warm November evening, sitting down on picnic blankets and browsing the various vendor tables that skirted the event. Tabling organizations sold everything from thrifted clothes to earrings, knitwear and magazines.
Student bands Vacate the Premises, CHOPT, F2L, Covercharge, Royal Fish, Mugshot and Wham Bam Big Band fought for the title of best band. The bracket-style competition had three different rounds, leading to four bands moving on to audience voting. The top two bands advanced to the final faceoff. The bands performed a mix of covers and original songs.
The judging panel consisted of students from a variety of different campus organizations, including Fraternity and Sorority Life organizations Kappa Delta and Phi Gamma Delta, Middle Eastern Student Association and Compost Club. They judged the bands on a variety of criteria, including technical proficiency, audience engagement, sound quality and original music. The judging panel decided the first round, but in the next round, the audience voted through QR codes to decide which bands would face off in the finals. Wham Bam and Covercharge advanced to the finals, in which the sets were extended to 20-minute sets.
Camille Batts ’26, who tabled for Underground Magazine at the event, spoke on the community aspect of the public concert.
“I feel like we’re losing community spaces, and so having a place that’s free entry, you can kind of just loiter around, live music all for free,” Batts said. “I feel like it’s really great, especially giving orgs the chance to sell things and promote their orgs.”
That’s exactly what WCWM Station Manager Catie Swansiger ’26 had in mind for the event.
“It’s really just about community at the end of the day,” Swansiger said. “We want to support organizations who want to advertise themselves, represent themselves. We want to support student vendors, we want to support the Williamsburg community, give them an event they can attend.”
More and more of a crowd formed as the night went on, and the music drew in many passersby.
“Obviously, people have different preferences when it comes to genre, but we are all here at the end of the day because there is a value to live music and the way that it brings people together in a way that just listening on your phone can’t as much,” Swansiger said.
Another important motivation for the event was to bring attention to the WCWM student radio. WCWM Radio is funded by the William and Mary Media Council and is completely student-run.
“Something we’re trying to do this year is just make sure people know about student radio and how important it is, and also, especially because we’re exclusively streaming these days, making sure people know why they should tune in, what they’re supporting, having faces to the name,” Swansiger said.
WCWM was established in 1959, and it broadcasts music 24/7. The organization has its own affiliated music and culture magazine, Vinyl Tap, and also hosts other community events like Rush Radio and WCWM Fest.
The student radio does not just broadcast; it creates a space where like-minded individuals can connect over music.
“There’s one of our bands who are pretty exclusively freshmen, and I think this gave them a chance to all bond over a common like of music, and having their friends come, and just one of their first ways to get involved with an org on campus is really important,” WCWM Junior Station Manager Emily Garloff ’27 said.
Garloff explained how music has helped her make friends and find community on campus.
“Music is really what I found to be my most central place to find friendship on this campus. Having people start off the year in the fall like that has been a really incredible opportunity,” Garloff said.
In the end, Covercharge emerged victorious as the Battle of the Bands champion after a night of music appreciation and community building.
“Events like these really bring a lot of people together, and it’s an easy thing to connect over, music,” Swansiger said.
