By Emily Schoch | Staff Writer
Campus buzzed with music and creativity Saturday night as students took the stage for Acoustic Café, an annual event hosted by Union Board that transformed the SUB into a cozy, coffeehouse-style open mic night.
With guitars in hand and voices echoing through the room, performers showcased original songs and acoustic covers, drawing an engaged crowd eager to celebrate student talent in a laid-back setting.
Chinyere Stallworth, assistant director of Student Union, serves as the adviser of Union Board. Stallworth said the vision for this year’s Acoustic Café was to create a comfortable, open environment where all students could participate.
“This year the inspiration was open mic night, so we invited some artists to come perform, and then afterwards, we opened it up to anyone else who wanted to perform,” Stallworth said.
Acoustic Café has been developing over the years drawing and more and more students with each event. This year, Union Board took the Acoustic Café in a slightly different direction.
“Last year, we had a really structured setup where we did artists with the Music Industry Club, and it was a lot more structured,” Stallworth said. “This year, we really wanted to make it easy-going and just open for everybody, not just about people who are more established artists, but students who just want to sing for like five minutes and just be the center of attention for a little bit.”
Stallworth said they saw an increase in viewer engagement. Even students who happened to be in the SUB Den when the Acoustic Café started stayed throughout the whole event.
The Acoustic Café’s vision changes each year, allowing students to express their creative talents differently.
“The open mic part is just to make sure everyone’s comfortable,” Stallworth said. “You don’t have to have talent to come do this. You can just come and enjoy five minutes of you being on stage.”
San Antonio senior Ariana Flores serves on Union Board and said this year’s Acoustic Café was well received by students because of the open mic aspect.
“I think it was very easy-going, like everyone has the opportunity to do karaoke or everyone has the opportunity to basically perform,” Flores said. “So it’s very hands-on, and it’s super laid-back and chill.”
While the Acoustic Café’s inspiration changes each year, Flores said the overall vision of Acoustic Café stays the same.
“The event helps encourage people to foster community through music — or mainly through just vibing [with] coffee — and it’s a unique concept where we’re having coffee and then we’re also jamming out to music,” Flores said.
