9th Wonder Returns to His Winston-Salem Roots for Music Festival

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Feb. 23, 2015 - PRLog -- 9th Wonder, a Winston-Salem-native hip hop record producer also known as Patrick Douthit, joins students of a Wake Forest University “laboratory” entrepreneurship and communication course to host a crowd-funded music festival, DashPop, in downtown Winston-Salem. Students will work with the Grammy-winning producer to craft the festival’s March 27^th line-up.

“It’s not every day that a university class hosts a music festival as a graded course assignment, and much less has goals as impactful as those of DashPop,” said Patrick Douthit. “When they approached me with the opportunity to use music to help bridge the gap between the different communities in the larger Winston-Salem area, it was an offer I simply couldn’t refuse.”

9^th Wonder is leveraging his label’s portfolio of hip-hop artists to curate a stage for Dashpop’s opening night at Ziggy’s. This line-up features both established and up-and-coming artists who are a part of 9^th Wonder’s independent label, Jamla Records.

“We knew 9^th Wonder would be the perfect fit to help us reach our goals, as we combine traditional classroom learning with experiential and service learning to create something completely unique and impactful for Wake students and our city,” said Len Neighbors, assistant professor, WFU. “Students are learning and applying the fundamentals of business to bring to life something they find incredibly meaningful, while directly influencing the growing music culture of our Winston-Salem community.”

Neighbors is teaching the yearlong course and directing the students as they create and host DashPop music festival. He is bringing more than 15 years of music industry experience to the classroom, with support from graduate students, Nathan Bedsole and Ashleigh Rainko, and their respective music and advertising industry experience.

Student involvement with the music festival includes booking bands and venues, approaching local and national businesses for sponsorship opportunities, creating and launching the festival’s crowd-funding component, marketing and public relations, and overseeing all logistical elements of hosting the festival.

DashPop music festival will take place in downtown Winston-Salem at venues including Ziggy’s and The Garage, as well as various galleries in the arts district of downtown Winston-Salem. Participating artists include Friday’s headliner, critically-acclaimed emcee and rapper, Rapsody; up-and-coming Chicago rapper and “Artist to Watch,” Add-2; Winston-Salem-native and proven solo artist, Big Remo; soulful hip-hop singer, Heather Victoria; New York songwriter and recording artist, HaLo; and west coast rapper and former NCAA basketball champion, GQ.

Festival attendees may purchase tickets online from the crowd-funded site, Kickstarter (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1465506544/dashpop-m...), or at dashpop.com, as well as other locations downtown and on campus, including: Ziggy’s, The Garage, WFU Benson University Center and UnderDog Records. Tickets are $8-$20 for individual shows and $30 for a weekend wristband.

For more information about DashPop and where to purchase tickets and wristbands, please visit dashpop.com (http://www.dashpop.com), and follow @dashpopnc on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/DashPopNC/590551984411481), Twitter (https://twitter.com/dashpopnc) and Instagram (http://instagram.com/dashpopnc/).

About DashPop

DashPop is a music festival hosted in Winston-Salem, NC, featuring local and national bands across various genres, including indie rock, bluegrass, hip hop and more. Students of a Wake Forest University course created the concept, planned and coordinated the event logistics and will host the first festival March 27-29, 2015.  DashPop serves the Winston-Salem community and aims to introduce local and national talent to the Piedmont Triad. For more information about the festival or to purchase tickets, please visit www.dashpop.com.