Up & Up Festival at San Jose State hosted a sold-out show headlined by DJ Chris Lorenzo at the Guildhouse, where electronic music filled the air on Thursday.
Since 2016, Up & Up Festival puts on a 48 hour pre-sale competition every semester for college campuses to win a music concert based on the amount of tickets sold, according to
its website.
Lorenzo is a tech-house DJ, hailing from the United Kingdom, who rose to fame after his remix on “California Dreamin,’ ” originally by The Mamas & The Papas, according to
an Insomniac article.
Back in February, SJSU competed xwith over 50 colleges across the country to be in the top six for the most pre-sale tickets sold for a Lorenzo concert.
SJSU came out in fifth place among UC Santa Barbara, Clemson University, Arizona State University, UC Santa Cruz and Indiana University – five colleges who also won the competition.
Up & Up Festival at SJSU is led by psychology and film senior Victor “Maneki” Lopez, who is
the president of the club. He was the direct support set for Lorenzo.
Marketing senior Logan “Logi” Lapier, business human resource junior Michael Bringas and business administration senior Steven “Dozage” Do all opened the show before Lorenzo took
the stage.
Outside of Up & Up, Lopez is the Vice President of Bad Apple Records, a record label he created with friends during his freshman year at SJSU.
Lopez said Lorenzo is both an artist and producer he looks up to.
“I didn’t expect him to be so open minded but it’s really reassuring that no matter how high up there you are in the EDM world, there [are] really nice people out there like Chris Lorenzo,” Lopez said.
Business marketing senior Brenden Kane, the vice president of Up & Up Festival, is responsible for the club’s recruitment efforts and leading team meetings
with Lopez.
Kane said all of the sets were equally as great and every single DJ worked hard to put on a performance, and that it was fun from the first opener to Lorenzo finishing off the night.
“I would describe the crowd’s energy as nothing less than electric,” he said. “Everyone was jumping and having a great time, something I can’t wait to see every year if we keep winning.”
Mechanical engineering freshman Karmello Alipio
attended the show on Thursday with his friends. He said he
doesn’t listen to Lorenzo often, but enjoys his style of music to a
certain extent.
He said Lorenzo’s 2022 song, “MAMI” featuring COBRAH, is his favorite song played at
the show.
Alipio said he would go to another show hosted by Up & Up if he knew more of the
artist’s discography.
“The atmosphere was nice, just very crowded. The whole night was a good time,” Alipio said.
Toward the end of his set, Lorenzo brought out the openers and direct support onto the
360 stage for a B2B DJ set.
A B2B is when multiple DJs play the same setup and switch back and forth, according to a
DJ Tech Reviews article.
Lapier recently started his DJ career in July and was the first opener for Lorenzo.
He said Lorenzo encouraged the openers and direct support to have fun in front of almost 1,000 people.
“Sharing the stage with Chris was fantastic and was by far the highlight of my DJ career,” Lapier said. “I almost started crying. I was so happy because I was surrounded by all my friends, all the DJ’s in Up & Up that inspired me and an artist I idolize.”
Kane said the show’s production, including sound quality, lights and equipment, were pretty similar to other concerts and
festivals he’s attended in the past.
“I think the main difference was that this felt like a show for the students with the students,” he said. “Basically, I [felt] like it was a tight group and everyone knew someone in the crowd or even on the [Up & Up] team so it felt like we could all just dance and have a great time together. [At] other concerts, you just go with a friend group and see thousands
of people.”
Kane said he’s thankful for everyone who bought a ticket for the show and attended it.
“I want to thank the entire team for working so hard in the presale to make us 7x champs for Up & Up,” he said.
