Despite the popularity of Studio-A-Rama, college radio station WRUW’s annual all-day music festival, the organization has had a hard time resurrecting its flagship event after it was shut down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, campus COVID-19 protocols have limited the number of participants allowed at events as well as added difficulty in coordinating with the Case Western Reserve University administration, preventing Studio-A-Rama’s return—but now, four years later, the event is back and, hopefully, back for good.

This year, Studio-A-Rama ran from 1-11 p.m. with 12 different musical acts, all but two of which were local to the Cleveland area. Shadow Show came in from Detroit, and headliner Cheekface flew in all the way from Los Angeles. The event took place in the Mather Memorial Courtyard, with a stage set up in the corner against the Mather Memorial Building, merchandise tables on the side by Harkness Chapel and food trucks in the parking lot behind Hillel. Attendees spread themselves out on blankets and lawn chairs across the courtyard’s lawn, occasionally flitting away to get food or check out merchandise, until Cheekface took to the stage—then everyone was on their feet.

My general impression of Studio-A-Rama was that it was like a smaller, more community-oriented version of Springfest, CWRU’s annual student-led spring music festival. I was surprised to see that the majority of the crowd, at least when I went in the mid-afternoon, seemed to be made up of community members who actually traveled to CWRU’s campus to see the festival. Many of the various artists’ friends and family members came out to show support—even the adorable toddler daughter of one of the members of C-Level placed a C-Level sticker right onto my friend’s hand. It was really sweet to see so many locals brought together by music and interacting with our campus, although I wish that I could have seen a few more CWRU students in attendance before the headliner came on.

WRUW General Manager and fourth-year student Vani Subramony echoed these thoughts about the event: “I am so happy with how [Studio-A-Rama] turned out! Having the opportunity to break through the bubble of the university and have community members and students alike enjoying music from local and national bands was the most rewarding experience. I’m so incredibly thankful to our WRUW team for making it happen.” Recruitment Director and fourth-year Hannah Morris was similarly pleased, saying, “There was a lot of anticipation on how our return to the music festival scene would turn out … I talked to some community radio folks who shared my sentiment that ‘We are so back.’”

If you missed Studio-A-Rama but want to support WRUW, you can tune in to their station 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And if you want to support them financially, you can donate to their annual spring telethon. Either way, you’ll be ensuring WRUW continues to broadcast great underrated music and be able to put on Studio-A-Rama and similar events well into the future.