If you’ve attended Fall Fest or Winter Fest, there’s a chance you’ve seen SAMU’s event producer, Courtney Milford, running around and making sure everything’s running smoothly, things are on time, and that students are enjoying themselves. It might look simple, but Milford’s care for student experience starts months before any SAMU event opens its doors.
Heading into her seventh year as the event producer, Milford manages SAMU’s events department. She’s behind the creation and management of events such as Makers Series, comedy nights, Fall Fest, and Winter Fest.
Each event hosted by SAMU is paid for with a portion of student fees. According to Milford, that means booking talent that appeals to the most MacEwan students is a main priority.
“The main roadblock always is if students will come and watch it,” said Milford. And what she’s found that appeals to the students is popular music.
That’s why SAMU festivals book headliners like Artemas, Oliver Tree, and BBNO$ — they may not appeal to students who prefer more niche genres, but their broad popularity nearly guarantees high attendance.
Milford’s booking process isn’t biased by whether an artist is Canadian or internationally based — but rather by their marketability to the average MacEwan student and whether she can communicate their sound to them.
“Maybe your Spotify presence is bad, or your Instagram presence is bad. And then how do I communicate that to our audience of students who care to see who they’re seeing?” said Milford.
Milford’s booking process begins with choosing specific dates and venues. She then reaches out to agencies based on their talent roster and the genre lineup she’s curating. Throughout her years in the events industry, Milford has built a strong relationship with Feldman Agency and Midnight Agency, which represent Canadian and international talent. For U.S.-based and international acts, the larger agencies Milford deals with are Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and William Morris Endeavour (WME). Once Milford finds talent she thinks would perform well for students, or multiple talents, she’ll contact agencies and send out offers with dates and an estimated budget range.
“We’re interested in so-and-so for ABC Date. Our budget is A through Z-ish; is there interest? Is there availability?”
— Courtney Milford, SAMU event producer
Talent agencies will get back to Milford’s inquiry with a yes, no, or that their talent would sooner die than play at a university — and some of them just want to charge exponential rates that are completely out of SAMU’s budget.
According to Milford, once offers are finalized, they don’t typically fall through. But there have been years when Milford books an artist, and a tour causes a cancellation. One year, Benson Boone was going to play a SAMU festival, but it was cancelled so he could open Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour.
“We got really, really lucky with Tiffany Day. We scooped her early enough. Like, before her price tripled,” said Milford.
Milford has to consistently weigh student interest, budget, and availability in order to create a lineup. Winterfest 2026’s four-slot lineup was entirely internationally-based talent, and Fall Fest hasn’t hosted a Canadian headliner since 2023.
Out of the 36 musicians SAMU’s festivals have hosted since 2022, 16 have been internationally based, while 20 have been Canadian — only six of which were from Edmonton.
However, Milford wishes she could book more freely and locally for SAMU festival lineups.
“I have a 20-band wish list that, at least, of Canadian, emerging bands that I want to book, but I can’t necessarily book them in the Starlite room because they don’t have an audience built,” said Milford.
According to Milford, domestic talent with a small audience forces her to deliberate their potential appeal to MacEwan students.
“If [students] don’t care about the band that I booked or it doesn’t super appeal to them, they don’t want to buy a ticket.”
This creates the possibility of opening the event up to the public, which Milford avoids because every SAMU event is subsidized by student fees. If Milford allocated 50 per cent of tickets to the public, which sell out, but the allocated student tickets don’t, “then I’m just doing a show for the public with student money,” said Milford.
To avoid this dilemma, festivals are Milford’s preferred way to feature small, emerging talent. She likes to pair a popular headliner, such as Artemas, who can draw in the necessary student crowd, so that smaller acts can get exposure on the same bill. The largest issue with this is the number of allotted slots for Fall Fest and Winter Fest, which is why she’s pushing for the creation of more festivals.
“I want more festivals, because then I can book more bands and give people more slots and more exposure, and opportunities,” said Milford.
In previous years, Fall Fest was a two-day event with multiple featured bands. Milford wouldn’t mind a current expansion of Fall Fest, but “It’s risky outside with the weather. It’s costly. We don’t know if students will come to both [days],” said Milford.
“I’m not opposed to the idea, because we want to book more stuff. But, we’ve also found, just by trial and error, any kind of thing that we book, whether that’s bingo, whether that’s like our Maker Series, whether that’s comedy. Certain days work, certain days are less popular with students,” said Milford.
Milford has found that the best days for the highest student attendance are typically Thursdays or Fridays, but when it comes to booking external venues for musical events — such as the Starlight Room — Milford has to fight with other promoters for the dates.
“Everybody wants a Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So then that gives us a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, which then students are working,” Said Milford.
SAMU’s own event space on the second floor of the SAMU building, called ‘the Lookout,’ works well for speakers and comedy. For music, Milford finds it a less favourable location due to the glass walls.
There are a ton of factors that Milford must take into account while planning any event; despite needing to sometimes sacrifice local talent for what she knows will bring students in, or fighting for a booking at an external venue, Milford has shown that her dedication to catering to MacEwan student interests is an all-time priority. Students subconsciously control every step of Milford’s process.
While Milford is working towards featuring a larger stream of local talent at SAMU festivals and events, she still recognizes the importance of Edmonton’s local music scene.
“If we’re not booking you, we’re still seeing you. Keep playing!”
