Saturday, Aug. 30, Alma Mater Productions at the College of William and Mary transformed the Sunken Garden into an outdoor venue for its second annual Tribechella music festival. The main event was an all-day concert featuring four student band openers and headliner Daniel Seavey. It was the energetic welcome back that AMP members — like Live Committee Chair Ava Canadé ’28 — hope can become a lasting tradition for years to come.
“Since last year was the first year we had done the event, a big focus was solidifying the image of Tribechella in people’s minds as a welcome-back concert they can look forward to,” Canadé said.
To accomplish that goal, this year’s Tribechella also included a range of activities, including food trucks, amusement rides and an artists’ alley of student vendors selling handmade goods.
“We wanted to bring stuff in to fill in the space between where the stages and where the amusements will be,” Canadé said. “It helps make Sunken Garden really feel like this big hopping event with a lot going on and a little something for everyone.”
Before sitting down to enjoy an opening act performance, Mara Kniep ’30 was sure to take advantage of all that Tribechella had to offer.
“We got grilled cheese plates, and we got Ben and Jerry’s, which was fun,” she said. “We also checked out the rock wall and the swings, and they were super cute.”
According to AMP Live Committee member Cate Shepherd ’29, this year’s additions were very intentional.
“In the spring when we were brainstorming what we wanted this year to look like, we looked at input we got from Tribechella last year about things that people liked and didn’t like,” she said. “This year, we have swings instead of the Ferris wheel because when some people said they didn’t like it, we made sure to find something else.”
While many initially made their way to Tribechella for food and rides, students like Lucy Faubert ’30 found it was the music that made them stay.
“What encouraged me to come out to the event was that I heard there were going to be swings. I heard there was going to be a rock wall,” Faubert said. “And I love the student bands so far. They are awesome. They’re very talented.”
In designing the concert itself, Canadé and her team worked to expose students to a range of musical styles and create an opening lineup filled with different genres.
“We want to make sure there’s a little something for everyone and that it feels like there’s variety,” she said. “Our first band is Sara and Ruth, who do pop and some slower songs. We wanted to start with them to sort of build it up before the next band, Royal Fish, plays, which is definitely more of a rock vibe. And then we have the band F2L which, again, is back to pop to structure the show so that it’s not the same type of music for an hour straight.”
Covercharge, the final student band, rounded out the lineup with a set covering well-known rock songs, including Radiohead’s “Creep” and Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.”
Of course, no music festival would be complete without a headliner. Selecting Daniel Seavey, a solo artist and American Idol finalist who formerly led the boy band Why Don’t We, for the role was no simple feat for the committee.
“I turned my committee’s ideas for artists into a form that we all vote on, taking into account a couple things like name recognition and what their live performance is like. What do we think will fit the vibe of a summer welcome-back concert?” Canadé said. “From what I’ve heard, people are really excited about Daniel, which I’m glad about.”
When Seavey took the stage at 8:00 p.m., Tribechella transformed from a carnival into a true concert as students stood up and packed themselves in front of the stage. The set served as an opportunity for Seavey to show off his musical know-how as he moved between the guitar, drums, vocals and even an electric cello while playing through his catalog.
“A lot of people obviously know Daniel from Why Don’t We,” Canadé said. “But he’s releasing a lot of solo music and is becoming really popular with his solo work.”
One of the set’s focuses was Seavey’s ability to replicate any popular song from memory using nothing but a looper pedal and the instruments available to him onstage. After taking requests from the crowd, Seavey put together his own, on-the-spot arrangements of “As It Was” by Harry Styles, “Birds of a Feather” by Billie Eilish and “Sex on Fire” by Kings of Leon.
Besides a night of grilled cheese, live music and swing rides, Shepherd most hopes students gleaned a sense of connection and belonging from this year’s Tribechella.
“I really hope underclassmen, especially the freshmen, get to have the same fun experience I had when I went with my freshman hall last year,” she said. “It’s an experience that isn’t academically- or orientation-related that we can all go to and bond for the first time.”
For Canadé, on the other hand, Tribechella stands as an example of how, even at a school that has stood for more than three centuries, new traditions are continuously being forged.
“I hope that students get a memory out of it that they will remember for a long time,” she said. “Whether they are freshmen, sophomores, transfers or juniors, I hope that everyone who attends will have a special memory associated with it. And for the people that will still be here over the next few years, I hope, of course, that they come back to the next Tribechellas.”
