Editor’s note: The performance on Feb. 6 mentioned in this story has been postponed due to weather. The new date hasn’t been set yet.

Associated Students is continuing to provide free entertainment in 2025 as The Depot starts its first week of events in February.

Organizers at The Depot are working to ensure San Francisco State University students can find something to do that works with any budget and is in an accessible location. 

The Depot, located on the lower floor of the Cesar Chavez Student Center, hosts free weekly events starting in February. The Depot is aiming to tap into the tastes of its managers and interns who are in charge of booking artists for the venue. 

This spring, Depot manager Michelle Yang is setting up shows of varying sizes. Regular events like game evenings and karaoke return at the start of February. Karaoke is The Depot’s first event and will be hosted on Feb. 4 in partnership with SFSU’s rugby club, which is preparing for a season with a fully recruited team for the first time in a couple of years. The game evening on Feb. 5 will hold spaces at the venue for card games, board games and Nintendo Switch games.

The first two events lead into the first live show of the season, which is turning out to be a bigger undertaking than expected. 

Shoegaze band Midrift returns to SFSU to headline a show full of San Francisco-grown bands on Feb. 6 in an outdoor concert at Malcolm X Plaza. Local indie pop band Luna Ivy and alt-rock band Chrome are set to open the performance. The headliner has grown substantially in popularity since their first visit to The Depot last February, gaining over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify in the past year. In order to accommodate Midrift’s large fanbase, there had to be a shift in locations from The Depot to Malcolm X Plaza.

“We booked Midrift for The Depot, and when we booked them, they were expected to play here,” Yang said. “And then they said that their last show in S.F. had 600 people. This room can fit maybe 200 max.”

Just over a week out from the show, Yang and assistant manager Emily Timmons were still in the process of ensuring the show would be compliant with outdoor performance regulations. 

Yang said she had never organized a show at Malcolm X Plaza.

“I didn’t know what that entailed, you know, in terms of barricades, in terms of the sound system, lighting,” said Yang.

Intern Waheeda Khasru said that she and the other interns had just found out about the impact of the relocation that day. 

“It’s Michelle that ends up dealing with a lot of pressure. Emily as well,” said Khasru. “We’re kind of there to help with the little things.”

The change in location is forcing the staff to adapt at a quick pace, including connecting with vendors like Red Bull and Yerba Mate to bring refreshments and possibly having other student organizations speak at the show.

Following the first shows of the semester, the managers are planning the annual Rhythms festival around Spring Break and a “Punk N Drag” show on March 13, which has an open call for performers on their Instagram. All of February and March are booked, according to the managers, and April has all but one show confirmed.

Interns are tasked by Yang and Timmons with booking performances at The Depot to keep the venue lively in between the larger events.

“I definitely do want to maybe have at least one of my friends’ bands play here,” said Aidan Yu, one of the interns at The Depot and a third-year psychology student. “Maybe one of the more softer, more shoegaze indie-type genres.”

Dexter Grahame, another intern and first-year music major, started brainstorming around a similar area of the musical spectrum. 

“I do go to a lot of DIY shows around the Bay,” Grahame said. “The thing is, it’s mostly screamo shows that may not fly in this venue.”

Yang and Timmons showed some hesitation to Grahame’s idea based on previous experiences.

“We’ve had punk bands here, we’ve had screamo,” said Yang. “We’ve had that audience here. It does not run well with the school’s policy in terms of safety at events and also ADA compliance.”

Although there are guidelines and safety concerns for interns to be aware of while they make their bookings, Yang is giving her interns almost complete freedom to book shows and acts they think would be a good fit for The Depot.

“We want the space to be inclusive,” said Timmons. “Sometimes certain bands do bring in a crowd and we love to see the audience engaged.”