An idea born in the dorms at UMass Amherst is quickly becoming a national music movement on college campuses.
“It started with just promoting local musicians, promoting local bands, just trying to cultivate a good creative music scene, putting together musicians, photographers, videographers, and then putting on shows and giving them an audience and a platform to showcase,” said Mojo founder and CEO Charley Blacker.
COO of Mojo Alex Parker, Director of Mojo Emily Donovan, and Blacker launched the company as college sophomores with the goal of bringing modern-day music festivals back to the basics.
“At the end of the day, we’re just trying to make great experiences for everybody,” said Donovan.
The Mojo Boston Musical Festival is set to take over City Hall Plaza on May 9 for the very first time.
“This is where the old Boston Calling was, and so we’re like, all right, maybe it’s possible,” Blacker said.
The trio raised all of the money for the production on their own through sponsorships and ticket sales from other festivals. They told WBZ-TV that they expect around 8,000 people to attend and for the event to benefit the city as a whole.
“I think the city’s been trying hard to activate public spaces a lot over the past couple of years, and there have been some smaller-scale festivals,” said Andrew Galvin, Director of Communication and Community Outreach for Erin Murphy. “But there hasn’t been anything quite this big since the original Boston Calling.”
New Bedford-based band of brothers Morrissey Boulevard met the founders while at UMass and has since played a few smaller-scale Mojo festivals.
“One of the coolest gigs we’ve ever played,” said frontman Zan Morrissey. “Maybe the coolest gig we’ve ever played.”
Zan said that the festivals are a dream for the live music community.
“These bands are so cool, and they’re so inspiring to us,” says drummer Wilson Morrissey. “It’s almost like, how do we fit in with them? It’s a massive stage for us and it’s so much fun for us to feel like small mice in a big city.”
With 10 hours of music, two stages, food trucks, and more, the Mojo team is looking forward to seeing all their hard work pay off.
“We are really confident that it’s gonna be a banger of a festival. We’re really excited,” said Blacker.
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