Recess, the first music and “ideas festival,” launched today with a mission to inspire young college students into becoming game-changing entrepreneurs.
Recess co-founders Jack Shannon and Deuce Thevenow began their careers with Glowfest, an EDM festival that brought artists like Avicii, Pretty Lights, and Deadmau5 to colleges around the country, which is where they noticed a trend in how students thought about life after school: “We saw a wave of interest in startups on college campuses. While we loved what we were doing with Glowfest, we felt like the show was missing something, missing a bigger purpose.” 
Backed by “shark” investor Mark Cuban, RECESS is the first of its kind. RECESS is scheduled to stop at seven college campuses across the US featuring Cornell, UC San Diego, and NYU. The tour is essentially a music festival/networking event hybrid that focuses on creating opportunities for college students.
Participants will hear a progressive speaker series led by entrepreneurs that share advice and stories on what it takes to be successful; there will also be a March Madness-style business pitch competition where students pitch their business ideas at each campus to a panel of judges for a chance to advance to the national competition in Las Vegas “where they will compete by pitching their ideas to advisors, mentors, and investors.”
RECESS curates the best day of college by bringing together successful entrepreneurs, the coolest new startups and the hottest acts in music to campuses across the country. Our mission is to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs that will change the landscape of tomorrow’s businesses while offering participating brands unprecedented campus access to activate students.
RECESS will be kicking off on March 21st at University of The Pacific in Stockton, CA and will be headlined by Diplo, who will sit down with Twitter’s Head of Music Bob Moczydlowsky for a one on one discussion during Study Hall.
I really love what these guys are doing here. RECESS is something that will undoubtedly help lift the negative stereotypes that are so often attributed to EDM enthusiasts. Check out RECESS’ official announcement video down below.
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I honestly think this is an awesome idea. I’m sure tons of college kids have great ideas on how to change the way the business works.