Arlington Native, Berklee Student To Play Lollapalooza Music Festival

ARLINGTON, MA — Arlington native and Berklee College of Music student Julian Carpenter will play Lollapalooza Music Festival on July 29 as part of the Berklee Popular Music Institute (BPMI), a class that brings students and Berklee-affiliated acts to major North American music festivals.

Carpenter is the drummer for the artist Aiida and will play on day two of the four-day music festival at Grant Park in Chicago. He will share the stage with acts including Dua Lipa, Machine Gun Kelly, Glass Animals, Don Toliver, Rezz, and many more.

“I think for me the moment of joy comes from a period of first noticing the audience and what they’re experiencing, but the most joy will be when I turn to my bandmates and see Aiida and realize I am experiencing this thing with them that we have been working on for so long,” Carpenter said.

"I think we are ready and I'm just really excited to have fun,” he continued.

The BPMI program at Berklee guides students through every step of going from the classroom to the stage. While most Berklee classes take place over the course of one semester, BPMI runs on a three-semester, full-year cycle.

In the fall semester, the class selects the artists and splits up into management teams. In the spring, students work on artist development, marketing, digital presence, budgets, merchandise, sponsorships, and advancing their assigned festival.

For the final semester, teams rehearse with the artists to prepare them for the festival stage and accompany them to each festival to handle on-site promotion, production, and tour management.

“I think the good thing about coming to Berklee is that it is a high stress environment,” Carpenter said. “If you can take the pressure and moment of ‘wow, there’s a lot of talent in the world," over time you see yourself improve. Once you look back and see how much you have improved over the last five years, it takes away some of the stress and I am now optimistic about the next five years."

Carpenter also gave a shoutout to his teachers in Arlington’s music program for helping him get to where he is now.

“One of the first people who inspired me was Paula Demitrio,” he said. She was very kind and encouraging and made me love music.”

Carpenter's other mentors include John Ditomasso, the electronic music instructor, Sabatino “Tino” D’Agostino, who leads the band and orchestra, and instructors Jesse Williams, Ramona Borthwick, Matt Burwell, and Henrique De Almeida.

To view a full lineup of artists performing at Lollapalooza 2022, click here.