What is Music Garden?
Music Garden is an event planned, funded, and managed by KTEC, the Campus Activities Board (CAB), and Student Involvement and Belonging (SIB). The first Music Garden took place in 2015, and continued every year for the next four years, but was halted during planning in 2020 because of COVID-19. A smaller version of the event took place in 2022 for students only, and a larger return-to-form event which was once again open to the public took place in 2023, which drew over 700 student and community attendants.
Because Music Garden is planned primarily by full-time students, the event looks a little different every year. In general, you can expect to see a diverse collection of live music, beer and food vendors, carnival-style activities, and people having fun at the event.
Oregon Tech maintains its own Music Garden website, which (as of 2023) can be found here.
Attractions
Note: these are four attractions that tend to occur at every Music Garden. The specifics of these attractions can and will vary from year to year.
Live Music
The focal point of Music Garden is, of course, the music. Each year, the planning team works hard to find a diverse selection of artists to bring to campus for the event. The number of artists varies from year to year, but has historically been anywhere from two to five artists. A live sound rental company is hired to handle the stage, sound equipment, and lighting, resulting in a concert experience that is on par with the largest live music events in Klamath Falls. If you’re looking for a great showing of live music in town, Music Garden is for you!
Beer Garden
The Beer Garden is responsible for the “Garden” part of the event’s title. This is an area at the event which serves beers, wines, and seltzers and is open to all attendees over the age of 21. Vendors for the Beer Garden are either local bars/restaurants/breweries, or the Oregon Tech’s food vendor Sodexo, as was the case in 2023. In years past, two vendors were hired and they held a “brew-off”, the winner of which was decided towards the end of the event.
Food Vendors
As with most other music festivals, we try to have a good selection of food options at Music Garden. We strive to involve local food trucks and restaurants (Heavenly Thai has been a regular vendor), and have involved our campus food vendor Sodexo as well. Meal vouchers are sometimes provided for free to the first few hundred students who arrive.
Other Attractions
No music festival is complete without an assortment of fun games and activities, and Music Garden is no exception. Inflatables of all kinds are common at Music Garden: slides, obstacles courses, and other inflatibale arena-style games are fun for all ages. It is also common to find Spikeball, Cornhole, and other field games at the event.