Friday night the Mississippi Horse Park will be illuminated by Pretty Lights.
The electronic musical artist, who has played at some of the biggest venues in the country, will bring his head-nodding, bass-heavy, sample-laden sound to Starkville.
The show is a collaboration among Mississippi State University’s Music Maker Productions, Lost Legend Entertainment, Green Machine Productions and Rick’s Café.
With an expected crowd of thousands, Thomas Fitzner, publicity chair for MMP, said the decision to bring Pretty Lights was not a difficult one.
Ghostland Observatory, another electronic act, but one that includes live instruments, graced the horse park mere months ago and even though Ghostland isn’t as popular as Pretty Lights, more than 1,000 tickets were sold for that show.
Fitzner said the electronic scene is not something Music Maker really paid attention to in the past, but that they are seeing it as an increasingly lucrative genre. They are expecting around 3,000 to 4,000 people tonight.
“Last semester the electronic genre as a whole seemed to be really successful in Starkville,” Fitzner said. “We hadn’t really catered to the electronic sound that much so we thought we would bring someone big like Pretty Lights to kind of satisfy that.”
Big might actually bring an understatement.
Fitzner said when Ghostland Observatory came, even though their production quality was through the roof, the actual set-up was pretty simple. All of the group’s equipment was contained in one 18-wheeler.
“Pretty Lights is coming with four trucks though,” Fitzner said. “The only shows we have had this big are Sugarland and Zach Brown. It’s a pretty major production, one of the biggest we have ever done.”
Doors open at 6 p.m. and Wick-It The Investigator, Lotus and Supervision will all open up for Pretty Lights.
Jake Murray, who works at Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern, said he has seen Pretty Lights before, about a year ago, and that he hadn’t heard of him at the time.
“I didn’t know one song,” Murray said. “But the lights and the show itself, was worth every penny. Even if you aren’t into the music, you can still appreciate the amount of effort that goes into something like this.”
Tickets are still available for the all ages show and can be purchased at the door or online at msuconcerts.com and lostlegendent.com
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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