Bradley Baker, director of the Ole Miss Student Union, and Ole Miss student Brady Ruffin stepped into the office of Visit Oxford last fall with an idea. Baker and Ruffin, both active with the Ole Miss Student Activities Association (SAA), weren’t interested in hosting their annual Spring Concert in the Grove, despite the big names – Nelly, Thomas Rhett, Travis Porter – they’ve attracted over the years.
“Bradley Baker and Brady Ruffin came to us at Visit Oxford,” said Lee Ann Stubbs, coordinator of the Double Decker Arts Festival. “They wanted to talk about a partnership and were interested in sponsoring the headlining band.”
The SAA Spring Concerts were always scheduled to take place on the Sunday of Double Decker weekend. But a desire to build a stronger relationship between the Oxford community and the Ole Miss students led SAA members to take their chances in bringing Oxford’s biggest events of the year together.
“There is already such an incredible relationship between the City of Oxford and the University of Mississippi,” Ruffin said. “We thought this partnership with Visit Oxford and the Double Decker Festival would be another great way to strengthen that bond.”
The SAA was able to sponsor the headlining band for the 23rd Double Decker Arts Festival, and this year’s music lineup has been all the rage ever since its unveiling in February. Because SAA sponsored the headlining band, Cold War Kids, in full, Visit Oxford’s music budget had a little bit further to reach for the following band on the lineup.
“I’m really excited about all of the bands,” Stubbs said. “The whole community is excited about this lineup, especially just being a well diverse lineup from beginning to end. We wanted the lineup to attract everybody. We don’t want to just cater to students, or just middle-aged. We want everybody, and this lineup does that.”
Neither the SAA nor Visit Oxford staff were sure Cold War Kids would fit a small Oxford town into their schedule, but Stubbs said they were as ecstatic as all of Oxford was to have them headlining the music.
As it just so happened to fit their time frame, Cold War Kids accepted the offer.
“They had never been to Oxford before,” Stubbs said. “I think that’s kind of how we attracted them. They were excited to play, so Oxford’s a good place. When bands start researching Oxford, they get excited about it. It’s something different they haven’t done before.”
Stubbs is also excited to finally have Houndmouth perform at Double Decker. Visit Oxford staff has talked about bringing Houndmouth to perform at Double Decker for years, and this year, those hopes became a reality.
“It just has never worked out for us,” Stubbs said, “with their routing and getting it together, but this year, it did and we’re so excited. They’re supposed to be having a new record release in the next few months, and they have got a great following.”
This year will also boast country band Whitey Morgan and the 78’s as well as a New Orleans funk and soul group who’s expected to have the crowd hip hop and boppin’ all over the Square – Tank and the Bangas.
A partnership with SAA, however, wasn’t solely focused on a bigger, better music lineup. Every aspect of the biggest festival around is of utmost importance for both the SAA and Visit Oxford.
“It was a good way to tie in the students coming to Double Decker and being more involved in the festival,” Stubbs said. “They are helping us as volunteers this year, so you’ll see SAA students all over the festival throughout the weekend. They’ll be backstage, in the kids areas, at the merchandise tents … So we’ve got them really helping us. This partnership is great, and we’ve enjoyed working with them.”
It’s to no surprise the Double Decker Arts Festival is bigger with each passing year. And when that Saturday finally arrives, Stubbs is usually the first one to the Oxford Square at 4 a.m. She walks around at looks at each of the art vendors that she was responsible for placing. She admires what each vendor will be selling as the day grows busy.
“I like to go around to see all the vendors because I placed them,” she said. “I emailed them. I talked to them. So I want to see what they have before the crowd comes.”
But even that rewarding feeling of seeing the art vendors that have taken most of her time in planning this year’s festival doesn’t compare to one special moment later in the day. After what little bit of downtime she’s had to spend with her family, she goes behind the stage.
“At the end of the day, we can kind of look up from behind the stage and see all the people out in the crowd,” she said. “And that’s when you realize … We did this. These people are here because we did this.”
By Randall Haley, Editor-in-Chief of HottyToddy.com. She can be reached at randall.haley@hottytoddy.com.
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