The third annual Bishop Bash is gearing up to be an entertaining Saturday night for Delaware and the Ohio Wesleyan University community.
Never Shout Never will kick-off the OWU spring concert at 7 p.m. inside the Gordon Field House, 105 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. The Mowgli’s will follow up as the headline act.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
“Every show we encourage the audience to let go of their problems and worries and just have fun with us for an hour. We want everyone who comes to the show to leave with a little less stress and anxiety,” said Matthew Di Panni, a Mowgli’s band member, in an email to The Gazette.
“Our mission has always been to spread love and awareness for everyone in this world. We have a lot of fun playing these shows so we hope the audience will feel our energy and will want to let loose and have fun.”
This will be the six-person band’s first performance in Delaware, he said.
The OWU’s Campus Programming Board, which organizes the concert, expects more than 350 people to attend the event, similar to last year’s attendance when YouTube sensation Bo Burnham performed.
“We have sold a significant amount of tickets so far, and we are expecting to sell even more this week in the week leading up to Bishop Bash,” said CPB President Kristen Nooney, in an email last week.
The concert is mostly funded from the activity fee OWU students pay every semester in addition to ticket sales. While students and employees pay half the price for admission, more tickets were sold this year to non-OWU community members, Nooney said.
“We have a good amount of non-OWU community members that come to Bishop Bash,” she said.
The Joplin, Mo.-based Never Shout Never began with only Christofer Drew. He built a fan base through online postings of “his bright, soul-baring music” to the internet, according to a release from OWU. There are now five members in the band, which released its seventh studio album, “Black Cat,” in 2015.
For the other band, The Mowgli’s formed in Los Angeles in 2009 with most of the members meeting in middle and high school, Di Panni said.
“We have all been playing music together for the majority of our lives,” he said. “I could go on and on about the where’s, when’s and how’s of this band, but what really matters is that we are in this together in the now. We write these songs and play these shows for the audience to have an experience of fun and honesty. We love you all.”
For ticket information, go to www.owutickets.com.