The East by East Lansing Charity Festival will be returning to MSU’s campus for its third year of music, food and fun on Sept. 24. The festival’s lineup includes 15 different Michigan-based artists from a variety of genres, including R&B, indie and punk.
All proceeds of the festival will be directly donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Michigan and a different local non-profit organization selected each year. This year, the Capital Area Humane Society was chosen as a beneficiary.
EXEL is the only music festival to take place on MSU’s campus. Alongside music, the festival will be offering giveaways from the MSU Dairy Store, Insomnia Cookie and Monster Energy, as well as access to the Simply Forked Food Truck and local art vendors. Puppies from the CAHS will also be making an appearance.
EXEL was started three years ago by two MSU students, Austin Pabian and Lee Cleaveland. “Austin came to me with an idea to throw a music festival on campus,” Cleaveland said. “He tried to have many campus groups help him out to no avail, so I said, ‘Well, let’s do it ourselves.’”
Both founders are members of Phi Kappa Sigma, a fraternity that is philanthropy partners with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Michigan. To Pabian and Cleaveland, it was almost obvious that the festival should be for a cause. “Having lost someone to lymphoma and after being in multiple bands myself, I immediately latched onto the idea,” Cleaveland said.
After three years, EXEL is going strong. “We legitimately believe in the cause and the potential it has to impact MSU’s culture in the future,” Cleveland said.
The festival will take place at the MSU Summer Circle Theatre, beginning at noon and continuing for the rest of the day. For more information on the festival, including the full artist line-up and list of engagements, visit the festival website.