How an annual Vanderbilt dance show raised money for charities

Conventional wisdom says that getting on a dance floor can be a healing experience. In this case that is literally true.

In the spring of 2011 Teddy Raskin was a sophomore at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. College life treated him and his friends well until a good friend of his, Luke (who asked that his last name not be used to protect his privacy), broke his neck in a boating accident after jumping off and hitting a sandbar, he broke two vertebrae. .

The group of friends was devastated by the accident. The good news was that Luke was able to learn to walk again through rehabilitation. The problem was that the machine he needed cost $90,000 and wasn’t covered by insurance. But Raskin saw a way to make it happen: a dazzling dance set on the campus lawn.

“Instead of just asking people for money for this machine,” Raskin says. “I thought we could organize a concert to raise the money and do it in the spirit that is emblematic of Luke, ourselves and the university, and turn the tragedy into a celebration of life.”

Raskin had already organized events in the city and had always wanted to organize a dance show in Nashville, a city not necessarily known as a hotbed of electronic music, especially in 2012.

So he started rushing, asking the fraternities at the school to pitch between $500 and $1,000 for the event and also agree not to throw their own party on a fall evening Friday that was reserved for the show. While Raskin says that Vanderbilt was “a little terrified” about having a bunch of fraternity brothers put on a dance show on the Alumni Lawn, the chancellor and other officials ultimately agreed to make it happen, even making it possible to get tickets can be purchased with student cards.

Meanwhile, through friends of friends, Raskin made connections at the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which focuses on healing spinal cord injuries.

They just needed a DJ. Raskin’s sister worked in the mailroom at WME, and a close friend worked at the NUE bureau. With their help, he contacted officers. “I asked Afrojack for about $10,000 and Swedish House Mafia for $20,000,” he says. “These agents said, ‘Did you put a zero on the offer letter?'”

Finally, the house duo White Panda signed up to play. On October 18, 2012, more than 1,500 students gathered on the Alumni Lawn to watch them play, with the show raising $96,000 through ticket sales and donations. Within a year, Luke was walking again.

With this, Lights on the Lawn was born. The show has taken place every year since that debut in 2012 and is now a staple of the Vanderbilt events calendar. Over the years it has hosted major dance acts including The Chainsmokers, Diplo, Afrojack, Oliver Heldens, Two Friends, Loud Luxury and Louis the Child, while also evolving into a training program that teaches Vanderbilt student organizers the ins and outs of life teaches. events industry.

This year’s Lights on the Lawn takes place tomorrow (September 27) with headliner Gryffin, who was originally one half of White Panda and has since had a huge solo career. The lead-up to the show now includes Lecture on the Lawn, which this year included executives Kris Lam from Big Machine, Az Cohen of 300 Entertainment and Alessi NehrAlessi Nairthe general manager of Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater speaking to students about how to get into the business.

More than 500 students have completed the program, many of whom have landed jobs at Live Nation, Wasserman, WME, CAA and Spotify, along with banking firms such as McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.

“Vanderbilt is a very competitive university,” Raskin said. “If someone is passionate about music, this gives them the opportunity to (learn to) produce, promote, market, create an educational series and then get a job in one of these places.”

With the original need that inspired Lights on the Lawn solved with the first show, the event in 2013 began sending 100% of profits to the Mary Parrish Center in East Nashville, which provides short- and long-term housing to survivors of domestic violence offers. The organization was chosen in response to a case that rocked the Vanderbilt campus in 2013, when four football players were accused of raping a student, ultimately leading to each of them being sentenced to prison.

Donations during the first three years allowed the Mary Parrish team to purchase the building they had been renting. “This was in 2015, right before things started getting crazy with the cost of housing in Nashville,” says the executive director of the Mary Parrish Center. Maria Katherine Rand. “It was such a gift that we were able to buy it at the time.” Founded in 2002, the organization was able to completely renovate the facility with subsequent donations from Lights on the Lawn. Other donation money paid salaries for the facility’s therapists, while Vanderbilt students also volunteered at the facility. Rand says Lights on the Lawn is one of Mary Parrish’s largest donors annually.

During its first 11 years, the event raised approximately $850,000. And this year, even those who can’t attend can make donations via the event’s GoFundMe.

After graduating from Vanderbilt in 2014, Raskin himself went on to work in Ticketmaster’s resale department for three years starting in 2017. That year he thought about asking the company to sponsor Lights on the Lawn, and it was suggested to him that he email Michael Rapino immediately ask for the money. He did.

“I didn’t expect a response,” Raskin said. Within 48 hours, however, Rapino wrote back. Raskin can still recite the email word for word.

“Dear Teddy, from me and the entire Live Nation family, we are so proud of you,” the note read. “However, we are concerned with obtaining partnership cheques, not with issuing them.”

“My heart went through the floor. I thought I was going to get fired,” Raskin recalls. But Rapino’s email went through.

“He said, ‘This show is so great. We are so happy to support. (COO Mark Campana) will contact you and we will write a check for $50,000.

The email arrived as Raskin was on his way to a Lady Gaga concert at Wrigley Field with his parents. “I started crying in the cab,” Raskin says. Live Nation’s $50,000 sponsorship helped Lights on the Lawn have its biggest year yet, raising $171,000, generating 2.1 million digital impressions and nearly 4,000 tickets sold.

On the music front, agencies and DJs have also generally been generous, with artists typically playing at discounted or very competitive rates. “No one is trying to get their top offer from us,” Raskin says. “When you come to play Lights on the Lawn, you know three things: one, it will be a well-produced, well-attended show. Secondly, it’s an incredibly impressive show. And third, you don’t get your Lollapalooza booking fee.”

Raskin, who now lives in New York City and is CEO of KOACORE, the supply chain company he founded during the pandemic, says he would like to expand Lights on the Lawn to other college campuses, a move he believes will be beneficial for the whole country. charities and student associations in general.

“You have all these educational experiences, you have a great concert, you raise a ton of money, you’re sick and you learn,” Raskin says. “That’s our agreement.”