Six hours of live musical performances were held in front of the Scott Borchetta College of Media and Entertainment on Thursday, Oct. 1, for the annual Engage Fest.
Engage Fest is put on by the Recording Industry (RIM) department at MTSU, in partnership with Omega Delta Psi. The event showcases students’ talents in both music and production.
“There are a lot of students who don’t necessarily get to perform all the time, and it’s a good way for students to see others who perform,” ODP Vice President Shea Mitchell said.
ODP is the world’s first and only co-ed recording industry fraternity. The organization’s main goal is to help students prepare for careers in the recording industry by providing hands-on experience and opportunities to meet with industry professionals.
Scott Borchetta College of Media and Entertainment on Oct. 1, 2026. (Kevin Woodruff)
Engage Fest is not an event that comes together in a few days. Planning it takes months. ODP starts planning for Engage Fest in the summer months, working with the RIM department to secure dates and equipment and ensure university approval.
“ODP gathers equipment and volunteers to help run the event, and then our members and even some of the volunteers get to operate the sound equipment just to get that experience,” Mitchell said.
This year’s Engage Fest featured over 20 performers across various music genres. ODP contacts other student organizations in the RIM department — such as MT Songwriters, Urban Entertainment Society and Society of Electronic Music — and asks them to submit their artists. They also open the event to student artists who are not part of an organization.
“We look at the portfolio of the artist’s work that they submitted, and then we decide who would be a good fit for Engage Fest,” Mitchell said.
One of the artists who performed at this year’s Engage Fest was Shiiine. Shiiine is an R&B artist in the UES majoring in commercial songwriting.
“It’s kind of like a passerby event, but it’s great practice for getting nerves out. I would definitely recommend it to an artist who has nerves about performing. Overall, it was a great event,” Shiiine said.
Denise Shackelford — a recording industry professor at MTSU and the faculty advisor for UES and Match Records — also enjoyed seeing student artists work at the event.
“Engage Fest is a real opportunity for the SBCME, and in particular, the recording industry department, to show off what our students do, both from who is performing and who is running the sound,” Shackelford said.
It takes ODP a lot of work to set up the event: they have to find artists, schedule them, obtain their set lists and arrange equipment, among other tasks.
“One of the coolest things about our department [RIM] is all the hands-on opportunities that all the orgs do,” Shackelford said. “UES does workshops every week, Match Records operates like a real record label, ODP puts on live events and brings in professionals, so there are so many opportunities to get your hands into the recording industry in a multitude of ways.”
The recording industry at MTSU offers two majors: audio production and the recording industry. Within the recording industry major, there are two concentrations: commercial songwriting and music business.
“It’s a broad industry, I mean, there are journalists, entertainment attorneys, audio production people and artist managers. There are just a plethora of different routes you can take within the recording industry, and we touch on all of them,” Shackelford said.
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