With Festival 78 a month away, it was time for CSUSM to discover it’s next talent. Only a battle of music could determine the victor in CSUSM’s Associated Students Inc (ASI) Student Opener Competition.

On Feb. 21 at 6 p.m. 10 students competed in a friendly music competition at the QUAD Courtyard. These students competed for a chance to open for CSUSM’s Festival 78 on the Palm Forest main stage.

Festival 78, opening Saturday, April 7, is an annual music and arts festival held at CSUSM’s Mangrum Track and Field. This event invites students and other attendees to experience and unite in this festival celebrating music, arts and entertainment.

MC’s, Savana Doudar and Mars Waddy, welcomed the audience and introduced the peer judges; Michelle Tran, Andrew Reed and Alex Sanders.

Before introducing the first act, Waddy acknowledged the different amenities around the QUAD like the photo booth and friendship bracelet making station. There was also a taco stand where the audience could pick up free Carne Asada or chicken tacos, popcorn and hot chocolate while watching the performances.

The first act was a rock and instrumental band named The Endo Sol. Their singer was unable to attend but despite their setback, the band played well crafted songs and on their second uptake integrated a keyboard offering a whole new sound.

The second act was a solo singer dubbed Mari (Mariel Carin) sang and played “I Fall Apart” by Post Malone on her guitar. Acts three through eight were DJ’s; Evan Nunez, Keenan Skelton and THAI (Tyler Cerwinsli), who threw in his own spin of bass and voice distortion creating a new tempo, however, it became just a jumble of random shrieking and other sounds, LEX (Alex Maravillas), 4TONY (Tony Lita) and lastly, Fantast (Connor Newton).

Before the next act, Doudar and Waddy came back on stage to address the issue of a smaller audience. Waddy acknowledged that ‘it is unfair to those later performers who deserve just as much audience as the starters.”

But the show still went on with the ninth act, another solo singer Victoria Del Rosario, whose voice moved the smaller audience as she sang “I Keep on Fallin’” by Alicia Keys. The 10 and final act was a band named The Blind Vision who played a series of their own short songs.

Students, despite audience issues, received an email on Feb. 26 from ASI where they could vote for their favorite singer, band or DJ.

For more information on Festival 78 and ticket sales visit https://www.csusm.edu/asi/cab/featured_events/78/index.html