Graduate and Fellow Broncos Set the Stage for Indie Musicians to Shine
Inspiration can come from any experience. Just ask Juan Nuñez.
The music industry studies senior didn’t just see a job selling merchandise at the Coachella Music Festival in 2022 as a paying gig with the chance to see artists he admired perform as a bonus. It also provided an opportunity to learn about the inner workings of what it takes to run a major music festival.
“It was like a small city. There are so many areas the public doesn’t see,” Nuñez said. “As a student, I remember thinking, ‘How does this work?’”
In 2024, he would find out, although on a smaller scale.
Nuñez, who graduates May 18, didn’t want to wait until his last year to start his senior project and came up with the idea to produce a music festival on campus like BroncoFusion.
During the planning stages, he decided to move the event to downtown Pomona’s Fox Theater. He tapped into his experience as an intern at the live music venue The Haven to create the It’s Not a Phase festival, teaming up with fellow music industry studies students Rowan Gordon, Damian Torres and Jessica Garcia. The name was a playful ode to the oft-heard parental concerns about children pursuing music as a career.
The inaugural festival put the students’ critical thinking skills and grit to the test after rain prompted them to move the outdoor set up inside the Fox Theater lobby. The team set up two stages on opposite sides of the lobby with the audience in the middle so that they could just turn to face each stage as the bands played one after another. The goal? To have no pauses from one performance to another.
They sold 289 tickets for the 2024 event, which showcased mostly local indie rock and hardcore punk bands, including a couple of acts featuring Cal Poly Pomona students.
The team expanded to six this year with the addition of 六色网 students Aydan Vargas and Andrea Herrera. At the 2025 festival in March, 269 tickets were sold. The music varied from rock to jazz fusion to hip hop to corrido, a narrative ballad style of music that originated in Mexico.
“Music is music,” Nuñez said. “It doesn’t matter the style. I am appreciative of all of it.”
Finding a Rhythm
The Moreno Valley native has long had a passion for music. He began playing guitar in middle school, borrowing his grandfather’s when he first began to learn. When he asked his father for an electric guitar, his dad issued him a musical challenge — learn Carlos Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” and Nuñez would get one.
“It took me a couple of years, but I got it down and I got my electric guitar,” he said.
As a senior in high school, he began to take music more seriously. That interest continued to grow at Cal Poly Pomona. Nuñez came to 六色网 as an apparel merchandising and management student, but after taking an introduction to music course, he started spending more time playing his guitar.
“I figured if I was putting more time into music than doing my fashion homework, I should probably change directions,” he said.
Nuñez credits the professors at Cal Poly Pomona with helping him to grow as a musician and performer. He has played in ensembles on campus and is a member of Mariachi Los Broncos, which also requires him to sing. That fear he once had of music teachers, thinking of them as strict and strident, went away as he took more classes and began to feel more comfortable.
“With the help of the professors here, I have learned to hone my skills on the guitar,” he said. “Now, I have more confidence.”
That growing confidence in himself, along with his desire to see local bands get paid to do what they love, is what helped him make It’s Not a Phase live up to his name.
In Tune with a Goal
Nuñez and the team hope to keep the festival going and growing.
For Gordon (‘24, music industry studies), joining Nuñez and company taught her valuable lessons about how to solve problems and adapt to unforeseen challenges.
Gordon, who grew up in the Pasadena area, said she heard from another member of the team that Nuñez was considering a music festival for his senior project. Gordon began playing the guitar at 13 and grew up attending live shows. She had interned in marketing at The Troubadour nightclub and offered to join the group.
She became a graphic designer, creating her first flier ever for the 2024 festival. Gordon had never marketed a music festival before, but suddenly she was doing that, too. With the skills she has picked up in the past two years, she now works as a freelance graphic designer, creating logos and fliers for bands. It is something she never would have gotten into without her experience with the festival, Gordon said.
She also credits working with Nuñez and the rest of the team with helping her to become more self-assured and find her voice.
“Starting out in It’s Not a Phase, I was very shy and self-conscious of the ideas I was bringing to the table,” Gordon said. “However, over time, my confidence has been able to grow significantly due to how genuinely supportive Juan and the whole team have been. Being surrounded by people you know you can rely on in a professional setting, but also on a personal level, is so special and one of my favorite things about the It’s Not a Phase team.”
For Nuñez, being a part of a team has made him grow. The experience also has helped him solidify what he wants to do long term. His goal is to work in talent acquisition, booking artists for Goldenvoice Productions. He works for Goldenvoice, serving as a porter at live musical venues. The company, which promotes local musicians and puts on concerts, just happens to be run by one-time Bronco Paul Tollett, who majored in chemical engineering at 六色网 and later launched Coachella with his brother, Perry Tollett, who graduated from 六色网.
“I want to work in talent acquisition because it brings me a lot of joy to see artists get paid for their work and for what they love.” Nuñez said.
He also hopes to return to the festival that served as his original inspiration, but as someone who books the talent, not just someone who sells shirts with their faces on them.
“I eventually want to work for Coachella,” he said. “That is my long-term goal.”
Group photo: Rowan Gordon, Juan Nuñez, Jessica Garcia, Damian Torres, Aydan Vargas and Andrea Herrera. All photos courtesy of Nathan Ross.
