For 12 hours on Saturday, Aug. 3, a few blocks in East Village, Des Moines were blocked off for the 11th Annual 515 Alive Urban Arts and Music Festival. 

With eight stages, four indoor and four outdoor, along with live graffiti art and dozens of booths, the festival provided for the unique art types.

Although electronic music was the main focus, one of the outdoor stages was set aside for live music and hip hop artists to perform throughout the day.

A few current and former Iowa State students wanted to make their mark on this year’s festival. 

Matt Rottinghaus, also known as 8 Bit Cypher, is currently a senior in industrial design at Iowa State, but also just started an electrical engineering major. 

“I was very excited about this opportunity. I’m not primarily a DJ, my main thing is music production, and this is a way for me to get my music out there,” Rottinghaus said. “I’ve DJ’d a couple of house parties before, but this is my first time at an actual venue. It’s exciting, but nerve wracking.” 

Rottinghaus was given a prime time slot on the House Of Bricks stage, one of the free stages at 515 Alive. He describes his music as “electro house.”

“A lot of my music is influenced by 8-Bit NES video game music. Back then you don’t have a lot of sounds to work with, so you compensate by using different melodies and harmonies,” Rottinghaus said. “Adding the Cypher to that makes it not just 8-Bit music, [instead] it’s gone through a process to make it more modern.”

Rottinghaus has received some controversy for his song titles before, with a pair of tracks entitled “Sorority Massacre” and “Fraternity Arson.”

“I had a couple people message me about the titles, wondering what they were about. It’s nothing personal…I guess maybe it’s not the best choice of title, but it doesn’t bother me so much, it’s just a title,” Rottinghaus said. 

He also runs basshaus.net, a website specializing in sharing underground and alternative EDM and electronica music. 

“It’s a big opportunity for me, and a big opportunity to get to hear other people’s music, and to get to know the Des Moines scene better,” Rottinghaus said.

A few issues interrupted the festival throughout its startup. Early on in the day, one of the generators became overworked, taking out the power for an outdoor stage and several vendors.

Mike Antenucci, also known as Hurricane Mike, was personally affected by the power outage. Although the outage did not occur during his set, it did shorten his performance time. 

“I gave the [performer before me] 15 minutes extra time out of my set,” Antenucci said, reducing his time from an hour to 45 minutes. “It kind of threw me off a bit. For performances like this, I plan them out a couple of days ahead of time.”

Antenucci normally performs weekly in Des Moines at Lot 33 with Rage Live Crew at their Wacky Wednesday events.

The main stage at 515 Alive was also met with an unscheduled start, as the first act FM Synthesis wasn’t able to begin playing until 50 minutes after their designated start time.

Instead of shortening any sets, the main stage decided to let everyone have their full time and just push back all of the performances. 

Because the two stages were having difficulty, there were 25 minutes where only one DJ was being heard in East Village. Ben Shafer, also known as Soulless, wasn’t aware of the other problems.

“It’s kind of cool,” Shafer said about finding out he was basically the opening act of the entire festival.

Shafer’s previous experience comes from various clubs in Cedar Falls and the newly opened Joker’s Club in Des Moines. His next performance there will be on Friday, August 9.

Shafer’s set consisted mostly of remixes of popular songs over the last 20 years.

“With it being early, I want to play stuff that people know, [when] they’re still sober,” Shafer said.