Celebrating 50 years of the Sound Alternative, KJHK hosted a massive four-day event from October 15th to the 18th. Featuring a two-day music festival across local Lawrence venues, this year marked a birthday celebration to remember.
This incredible event could not have been possible without the passion and dedication of our 50th Birthday Party Planner, Micah Reynolds, and our Live Events Director, Lauren Braun. Below, Micah and Lauren share their reflections on planning these events and watching them come to life! Accompanying them are a few photographs our Content Director, Cameron Castaldi, took throughout their festival-going experience.
Photo of Micah and Lauren by Bea Norton
“Planning and arranging this festival was a very dense process, but I’m so happy I did it. Through this job, I have learned an abundance of history relating to the station, KU, and the greater Lawrence community. From the J school creating an evil alternate universe KJHK known as J-Rock which strictly played top 40s hits, which incited student protests, legal battles, and a strong sense of community for a common cause. To learning about the process of installing the station’s antenna, which required the help of the Kansas National Guard and one of their helicopters. To seeing and hearing about the decades of local live music that has existed all around Lawrence. Through this process, I have met incredible people who have done incredible things, and I got to see firsthand how this station has shaped and changed the trajectory of many people’s lives. I wanted to honor as well as I could what this station means to everyone who has been involved in it, and I knew I wanted to go all out when planning it.
This process started in August of 2024, and the original ideas I had for the week of celebration were pretty accurate to what actually happened, which I’m very happy was the case. A lot of the planning and arranging of these events revolved around collaborating with the venues that hosted our shows, which I’m so grateful for such a supportive community that was willing to come together to make this event possible. All of the venues were incredibly helpful and patient with all of the planning and constant schedule changes. We also had some local business sponsorships, which made this event just that much more doable. Huge shoutout to Gus Ketchell for carrying most of the weight with sponsorships. Overall, I wanted this event to be as local as local can be, and I gotta say, the community pulled through. I wanted an emphasis on sustainability with this event, and one way we went about that was through our merchandise. I’ve always told myself that if I ever ended up in a position to make decisions for a large organization relating to merchandise or sustainability, I would try as best as I could to make it intentional. For this event, all of our merchandise was upcycled. All the shirts were thrifted from stores around the KC/Lawrence area, and our logo was printed on all of them by River Rat Skateshop. With this process, we were able to reuse shirts that otherwise would very likely end up in a landfill, produce merchandise for the event without creating any new material, and collaborate with a local business.
On the booking aspect, our large-scale concert featured Mei Semones, an indie/jazz artist from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the opener was a Lawrence local, Dalima Kapten and her band. These were the best artists I could imagine starting out this event, and I think they put on a phenomenal performance. Mei and her team were so sweet, and I think they left a lasting impression on all of us here at KJHK and all the concertgoers. For booking the festival, I wanted to honor multiple music communities within Lawrence, from punk to psychedelic to country to jazz, and much more. All of these communities have strong ties to Lawrence and have flourished in their own ways. I think this is one of the things I like most about Lawrence. You have many sub-communities that carry an energy of their own, but they’re all able to overlap and work together to create art and community engagement.
Watching the festival play out was probably the most surreal experience for me. Seeing all the work that we had all put in leading up to this, it felt really good to see the community together in that many places with that many faces. Thank you to everybody who came out to celebrate 50 years of KJHK, and thank you to the incredible staff at KJHK who helped me bring this idea to life. Special thanks to Lauren Braun for being the co-arranger of all of this and picking up where I left off many times, as well as helping me stay organized. I couldn’t do this without the team, and I learned a lot about myself and working with others through this process.”
– Micah Reynolds, 50th Birthday Party Planner
“I am incredibly grateful to have been a part of the planning of KJHK’s 50th Birthday Party! I am most proud of the fact that many of the goals we set out to reach through this event were accomplished. The biggest goals we had were supporting current and historical local Lawrence music and sustainability. Throughout its 50 years on air, KJHK has been a sort of anchor point for local alternative music not only for the University, but also for the surrounding Lawrence community. It was truly amazing to see 50 years of music come together for four nights in October.
One of my favorite parts of my position in the 50th Birthday celebration was having the opportunity to meet and interact with so many musicians, KJHK alums, and other Lawrence music scene figures. Being able to meet Mei Semones at her concert at The Granada was extra special. As a female musician myself, I think it is so important to uplift other female musicians like Mei. She really stuck out to me for her composed kindness and almost quiet demeanor while also having so much power through her instrument and voice.
This operation would not have been possible without the help of our incredible team at KJHK. First of all, I would like to thank our Birthday Party Planner, Micah, who was the whole reason this dream turned into a reality. None of this would’ve been possible without their pure ambition and dedication to make it all possible. Every detail, down to the bands we booked, the themes, the sustainable merch, the venues, sponsors, and so much more, was due to their creativity and ambition. It was so impressive to watch it all come together! I would also like to thank our Creative Director Payton! We really threw her into the deep end with making graphics for this, and she exceeded our expectations by miles. She designed all of the stickers, banners, t-shirts, pins, water bottles, posters, and more. The logo for the birthday was so cool, and she worked tirelessly to make that a reality! And finally, I would like to thank the rest of our KJHK team for helping with promotion and at the actual event. They all made this so fun and a weekend I will never forget!”
– Lauren Braun, Live Events Director
We are so grateful to KJHK, our sponsors, and the Lawrence community for making these events possible. Here’s to another 50 years of student-run radio!
