This post was updated Aug. 23 at 9:50 a.m. The Watermelone Music Festival was born in Bruin Plate. It was there that second-year statistics student Sheila Wang and second-year undeclared student David Jiaye Pan first discussed the idea of putting together their own music festival and later held planning meetings in the same UCLA dining hall, as well as in a Sproul Hall music room. Read more...

Photo: The student-run Watermelone Music Festival, was held in Shanghai on Aug. 13. The event marked Sheila Wang and David Jiaye Pan’s first experience planning a music festival, but they found a venue they could access for free and reached out to artists through friends. (Chengcheng Zhang/Daily Bruin)

Maria Tuadi was in the middle of an emotional breakdown when the chorus to her award-winning song “Still” materialized in her mind. The alumna’s single “Still” is a 2016 Grand Prize Winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, and received the 2016 Lennon Award for R&B in May. Read more...

Photo: Alumna Maria Tuadi was diagnosed with arthritis in college and took a break from making music to focus on film. However, after regaining a sense of confidence, Tuadi channeled her feelings into writing “Still,” which won the 2016 John Lennon Songwriting Contest in May. (Axel Lopez/Daily Bruin)

Bryce Lamar painted strokes of blue and grey onto a sheet of poster board, smearing the paint around with different brushes to create various textures on the artwork. Read more...

Photo: Bryce Lamar has adopted a more free-flowing approach to his creative process, recently taking up painting as a way to reflect the emotions in his music. (Axel Lopez/Daily Bruin)