Reel Rock at UIC

From Courtney DePaulo:

University/Institution Name:  University of Illinois in Chicago

Program Name: Rock N’ REEL Fest

Program Area: Campus Recreation/ Student Centers

About the event/program:

  • How long have you be hosting this program?
    • The first festival was hosted in 2012
  • How did this program begin?
    • The REEL Rock Film Tour has always put out inspiring and action-packed films so we wanted to celebrate the tour by introducing the (non-well known) sport at that time to students and other community members by hosting a climbing festival. At the time, we were the only location hosting the film in the Chicago-land area.
  • When planning this program, what are some considerations for hosting the event?
    • Lots of collaborative effort goes into planning this event. Students, rec pro staff, and local vendors all come together to bring more awareness to the sport. The facility needs to be an approve d site to host the film and after approval there is flexibility with what is added to the film. UIC choose to pair the film with a festival to encourage use of the indoor climbing wall, to bring awareness to other outdoor sports and awareness for the adaptive climbing community and provide a fun evening for students and community members to try out the sport or to learn more about it.
    • Other considerations include marketing to the University, local community and local outdoor community, getting student and  Pro staff on board for assistance planning and running the event, ticket sales and cost (film requires a monetary obligation to host), space to host a few hundred people, and film set up.
  • What is your favorite part about this event?
    • Favorite part about this event is the energy that it brings from the climbing and outdoor community. Watching all of the festival goers who either already love the sport or who have found a new interest in the sport is amazing. The films are always excellent and super motivating (at least to me!) and give you that “I want to go climb harder, faster, more” attitude after it’s finished. It’s just an all around great night.
  • If another university/institution were to host this event at their university, what is a piece of advice you would give them?
    • Start planning early! J At UIC we have always had success including interactive portions of the festival (ie. Climbing, crate stacking, little challenges) for students and community members to try and get familiar with the sport before watching the film. Also, acquiring awesome raffle items that festival goers can win from donations are a huge bonus! Last piece- make sure you have an EXCELLENT tech team for when it’s time for the film to start. There’s no worse feeling than a film that doesn’t start or have sound when you need it to.

From Deep Shah:

University/Institution Name: University of Illinois at Chicago

Program Name: Reel Rock Film and Climbing Festival

Program Area: Outdoor Adventure / Climbing wall

About the event/program:

  • How long have you be hosting this program?
    • This will be UIC’s 6th year hosting the event.
  • How did this program begin?
    • Refer to Courtney. J
  • When planning this program, what are some considerations for hosting the event?
    • Some of the things that we look at are student interest. We ask the climbing community at UIC if they would look this annual event to come back each year. Other things we look at are day of the week since this event does draw community members, what vendors we want to invite to the event as they do provide us with donated items to raffle off.
  • What is your favorite part about this event?
    • For me, the favorite part has to be seeing the Chicago climbing community come together under one roof to celebrate another year of adventure and climbing.
  • If another university/institution were to host this event at their university, what is a piece of advice you would give them?
    • Like any programming event, get your students to support the event. They help spread the word amongst their peers and community members.