The mash-up/remix duo The White Panda will wrap up a day of live performances at Music Fest 2013 with electronic dance beats.

The group is the final act in the popular festival that will feature a variety of music, including rock, jazz, Motown, country and ska.Music Fest 2013 will take place Friday, Sept. 13, on The University of Toledo Main Campus.

Boyhood friends Tom Evans (Procrast) and Dan Griffith (DJ Griffi) combined their previously independent mash-up careers in 2009 and formed The White Panda. Their first single topped Internet radio charts days later. In June, the duo released its fifth full-length disc, Bearly Legal.

Music Fest 2013 will begin at 3 p.m. with The Lonely Friends, a Maumee band that won the UT Local Band Challenge to open the festival. The band, which describes its sound as “old-school rock with influences of blues and some metal to keep it fresh,” received the majority of votes — more than 8,000 — among performance videos from local bands posted to the Music Fest Facebook page.

The Contours featuring Sylvester Potts will be next on stage at 4:30 p.m. bringing the Motown sound to campus. They are best known for the 1962 hit “Do You Love Me” written by legendary Motown CEO Berry Gordy and featured in the film “Dirty Dancing.” The group performs ’60s and ’70s hits as well as songs from the movie’s soundtrack.

A pep rally will take place at 5:30 p.m. to get the Rocket football team ready for its first game against Eastern Washington that will take place Saturday, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Glass Bowl.

The music will continue with Alexander Zonjic with The Motor City Horns at 6 p.m. The jazz flutist returns to Music Fest to perform songs from his most recent Doin’ the D album and other favorites. He will be joined on stage by The Motor City Horns, which tout themselves as “Detroit’s most versatile musicians” and have performed with Bob Seger, The Temptations, Justin Timberlake and The Four Tops.

Country singer Josh Gracin, who was first introduced to the world as the country-singing U.S. Marine in the second season of “American Idol,” will perform at 7:30 p.m. His hit songs include “Nothin’ to Lose,” “We Weren’t Crazy” and “Stay With Me (Brass Bed).”

The ska-punk band Reel Big Fish will take the stage at 9 p.m. with its high-energy music. Best known for songs “Sell Out” and “Take on Me,” the band last year released the album Candy Coated Fury, which is its seventh studio album and first in five years.

At 10:30 p.m. The White Panda will conclude the festival.

For more information about Music Fest 2013, visit utoledo.edu/musicfest or follow the event on Facebook at facebook.com/UTMusicFest.

This entry was posted  on  Thursday, August 22nd, 2013  at  4:17 am  and is filed under  Events, UToday .
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