A Look Back at the Inaugural Lei’d Out Loud Music Festival
Summer came a little early for FSU students when the beach-themed “Lei’d Out Loud” music festival took over the university’s Union Green. On Saturday, April 18, the air on campus reverberated with the sounds of regional indie rock musicians and the cheers of a crowd decked out in floral prints and leis.
The brainchild of a dedicated team of FSU undergraduates, Lei’d Out Loud originated with a friendship formed in the halls of Cawthon Hall, a Music Living-Learning Community on the campus of Florida State University. Weatherboys frontman Jacob Da Costa and Creative Director Josie Liederman first envisioned a large-scale event while they were still freshmen. Inspired in part by similar events that they had experienced elsewhere in Florida, they saw a gap in the Tallahassee scene that they were determined to fill.
Working alongside Liederman and Da Costa were Alana Ginter (Manager) and Sandra Kiggen (CDU Talent Buyer). Together these four undergrads formed a student-driven powerhouse that made their dreams a reality.
Building the festival from the ground up required a mountain of behind-the-scenes effort, and the team managed it all, from learning to parse contracts, finding sponsors, managing logistics and safety concerns like venue booking and insurance, to providing hospitality for the performing artists and even designing festival merchandise.
A massive part of that behind-the-scenes effort was keeping the festival completely free to the public while ensuring the performing artists were fairly compensated. To pull this off without relying on grants—though the team plans to apply for them for the next iteration—they launched a robust grassroots fundraising campaign. Their efforts were amplified by a crucial partnership with Dr. Greg Jones and the FSU College of Music, who matched their sponsorships and fundraising up to a set threshold. In exchange for their vital support, sponsors received heavy promotion across the festival’s digital marketing channels, physical flyers, official website, and prominent onsite placement during the event.
Hundreds of leis were distributed, and beach balls bounced over the crowd as bands like Rohna, The Nancys, Hello Sister, Stellus, Walking Blue, and alumna Sophia Camille kept the energy high for festival headliner, Edgehill, and the host band, Weatherboys. Known for their dance-driven sets, Weatherboys debuted a custom light show designed by guitarist Bryce Ouzts.
“Day of show logistics went very smoothly, and all of our artists were happy! Everyone who showed up seemed to have a lot of fun,” said Liederman.
Although the organizers are heading toward graduation, positive feedback from the Tallahassee community and FSU students has inspired Liederman and Da Costa to turn their successful “proof of concept” into an annual tradition. The duo is already hunting for new sponsorships to make Lei’d Out Loud 2027 an even bigger success. As Liederman noted, they are focused on “taking what we learned from this year and applying it to next year,” hinting at higher production values and expanded marketing for the event’s return.
