Photo by Greg Clark | Hyperglow is one of the largest glow parties in the Nation.
A University of Rhode Island student performed at America’s fifth largest glow party this past Saturday night at the Strand theater in Providence.
This was senior Alden Jenkins’ third-year DJing at Hyperglow. Including last night, Jenkins has gone to Hyperglow all five years and performed a set in the past three.
In 2016 Jenkins performed at Hyperglow for his first time. He had a 30-minute set and was the first opener. In 2017 he did the same thing again. This year Jenkins was the second opener and had an hour-long set.
He described this year as “feeling much more at home” after getting to know more members of the production staff.
Jenkins knew someone on the production team and was able to get to know additional people to be selected to perform at Hyperglow in Providence through his connection.
“The world of DJing about is all about connections,” Jenkins said. “Once you meet someone who knows someone, you get introduced. I knew someone on the production team and they thought I’d be a great fit.”
Every DJ prepares differently for events. While some have a premade setlist, others load up their devices with songs they think the will fit the atmosphere of the crowd. Jenkins selected 50 songs to load onto his usb prior to the concert and spent days leading up to it practicing transitions.
“Come show time I found that it was like solving a puzzle when I was transitioning on stage,” Jenkins said. “I was gauging how the audience was reacting to certain songs and recognizing the musical key of the next prospective song relative to the current one to make sure that that are not too far off key from each other. All of those decisions are made of the fly, and become easier to make the more you practice. Your goal is to keep giving the crowd what they want.”
After spending so much time preparing, selling tickets and hyping people up, seeing everyone he’s told to come be present in the crowd means the most to him.
In high school, Jenkins produced electronic dance music. It wasn’t until he came to college that Jenkins started experimenting with DJing. He thought the idea of DJing a party in college would be something he would have interest in but never thought he would receive so many DJ opportunities.
“I never thought I’d have this much success,” Jenkins said. “I knew DJing would be this fun. I knew I would get to do it but I didn’t know how much I’d get to do it. I never thought I would for these size events.”
He has DJ’d President Dooley’s athlete barbecue, Tootell Aquatic Center’s pool party and half night on campus. In addition, he has performed at first night and recruitment events for Greek Life in the past.
This spring Jenkins will be graduating with a degree in computer science but hopes to continue DJing at least as a hobby.
“I’m gonna go with the flow to see what the market wants with me,” Jenkins said. “With computer science being very job demanding, I don’t see why I can’t do both.”