Hundreds of WCU students gathered at the Catafount for the first ever student-led Battle of the Bands food drive concert on Friday, Oct. 24.
The concert was organized by the new student organization Student Event Coalition, that was started November 2024 by students Ben Howard and Abby Howerton.
Howard and Howerton created the organization with the idea of Battle of the Bands being the SEC’s first event, however the first event was actually Unite UP in March 2025.
“We had about 600 people attend, which made it the largest student-planned event in university history,” Howard said.
Howard said he wanted to do a food drive concert as part of his Eagle Scout project, but he had health issues, so he did the food drive without the concert. As part of his Eagle Scout project, he has done five food drivers and raised about 16,000 pounds total for his town of Holly Springs, North Carolina since October 2023.
“I actually wanted to do this since I was 14,” Howard said. “So, to me this is six years in the making.”
According to Howard, he wanted to have a food drive along with the concert so the event can support local artists and the overall Sylva community.
The concept for the event was that attendees will donate food instead of paying for a ticket. Students could donate food on behalf of either a band or Greek life organization. Donated food went to Sylva’s Community Table. The band that raised the most food at the end of the concert received a plaque, a gift basket from the bookstore and a shout out from the chancellor, explained Howard.
Any student who donated was also given a sticker with the Battle of the Bands logo providing an incentive for students to donate as well.
At the end of the night, solo artist Coral raised the most amount of food of all the bands with a total of 59.5 pounds. Fraternity Epsilon Tau Pi raised the most amount of food of all Greek organizations with a total of 282 pounds. In total 727.6 pounds of food was raised from the event.
One solo artist performing at the event, Rosalyn Wellborn, was excited for the chance to perform live for her first time.
“I’ve been in music pretty much since preschool, my mom was my music teacher,” Wellborn said. “She taught me piano, taught me to sing.”
For the Battle of the Bands, she covered One More Light by Linkin Park and Mad World by Gary Jules. Wellborn said she writes her own music but is a poet more than anything else.
“It’s the emotional connection. It is the most beautiful way to express anything,” Wellborn said.
Attendees at Battle of the Bands enjoyed the event and hearing live music.
“I didn’t know what to expect and I was pleasantly surprised,” said Amy Connick, a senior at WCU. “I feel like the event ran very smoothly.”
The band AM:FM won the award for judge’s favorite and Plant won the award for audience’s favorite.
Howard hopes to keep this event going every other year and have a bigger turnout each time.
“This next year, Unite UP this March, we’re going to blow Battle of the Bands out of the park”, Howard said. “We’re expecting 1,200 people.”
The event was made possible with the help of SGA, Residential Living, Division of Advancement, Pisgah AVL, WCU Bookstore, School of Stage and Screen and First Bank of Sylva.
Bands performing were Last Minute, Evan Miller, The Stray Coyotes, Rosalyn Wellborn, AM:FM, Beall Looney, Gavin Byrd, Coral, Table for Two, Cameron Brown and Plant.
