Expect the Grove to be busier than usual this weekend and not just because the whole student population has revived from hiding in the wormhole dorms from last weekend’s rainy disaster. The New York International Music Festival is taking over Coco Walk, and it won’t stop for three more days. Starting yesterday, with the VIP Opening Night Networking party at the Artist in Residence Gallery, located on Coco Walk’s second floor, revelry for the festival will be ongoing from 12:00 pm to 12:00 am each day. In coordination with AMC Theatres and Independent Film Quarterly magazine, the festival promises high-quality entertainment, including musical performances, independent movie screenings, industry panels and as usual parties packed with beautiful people, true to MIA style.
And although the name of the festival denotes music only, the New York International Music Festival, members and participants of the New York International Film and Video Festival and the New York Art Festival will be in attendance, making the Grove a mass fusion of industry reps, talented artists, and of course the regular movers and shakers that come with the territory. Name dropping follows: Time Warner, Fox Networks, MTV, Miramax Films, VIBE, Warner Bros., and finally Rolling Stone.
But aside from all the regular hype, the festival will be turning heads. With almost 48 musical acts performing each day, bars of hip-hop, R&B, folk, jazz, country, and straight up rap will be ringing throughout the streets that many of us have become all too familiar with. Some names that are rumored to be in favor with industry “people” include rapper Eugene Burns, aka Big Nu, wannabe pop diva Mikel, solo hip-hop artist