When Frank Vargas transferred from Southern Illinois-Carbondale to Eastern, he sought to create a registered student organization that would provide a space for DJs to play their music.

He successfully managed to create a space for his vision and called it DubClub. 

When he brought that organization to Eastern, Vargas said it was challenging to find a venue that would do it, but he managed to find a place at Friends and Company in the square. 

Slowly but surely this new trend caught on, and by the end of last spring, DubClub became a hit with students who were dubstep enthusiasts, and Vargas was finding new and emerging acts to come and play every week. 

His organization had taken off with full steam, and he thought DubClub had cemented itself with all of the other student organizations on campus. Vargas, a senior communication studies major, had also created a space where students could exercise their skills in public relations and marketing with his new organization. 

“It was a place where people could come and listen to a different kind of music that was gaining popularity, and it was also a platform for local DJs, as well as those from afar, to come and share the music they worked so hard to make,” Vargas said. 

But at the start of this past semester, Vargas noted a change in the audience. Fewer people were coming to shows each week. 

And then it just stopped. 

Vargas tried to heavily promote it but never managed to bring back the audience he had lost. 

He said many factors could have contributed to DubClub’s demise. 

Vargas argued that the organization lost its popularity because of the long trip students had to take to get to the square. 

“It’s a long walk from our campus to the square, and I think some people found that unappealing,” Vargas said. 

Nicole Sadecki, a junior family and consumer sciences major, was drawn to the scene after watching other girls spin their hula-hoops to accompany the music played at shows. 

Sadecki said she bought herself a hoop and started to hoop for the concerts. 

Sadecki said she noticed people started to lose interest in the weekly event. 

“Thursday was once labeled DubClub Thursday, and that was the event people would look forward to on those nights,” Sadecki said. “It was a night for people who were interested in that kind of music to hang out and get to know others.”

Sadecki said DJs would find a way to make all kinds of music interesting. 

“You had DJs mix up tracks where they would combine music like classical and electronic to create full songs,” Sadecki said. 

Vargas said another key factor that may have contributed to DubClub’s end was the departure of the local DJs who graduated from Eastern. 

“They were a part of the promotion team that we had, and their friends would come to the shows and watch them perform,” Vargas said. 

Vargas said he is going to try and start DubClub again. 

“Well, I don’t think anything miraculous is going to happen this late in the semester, but I’m worried it’s just going to fizzle out and become a memory,” Vargas said. 

Vargas said part of what made DubClub a long-lasting trend at Southern was the entry age at the bars in Carbondale; people 19 and older are allowed to walk into the bars without being able to order alcohol.  

When attendance was waning at Charleston’s DubClub, Katie Cook, a junior communication studies major, made an informational video to promote DubClub last semester.

In the video, Cook covered the basics of DubClub, but her last-minute attempt to try to draw more people to shows, but it did not help DubClub’s reputation. 

When she interviewed students to figure out why attendance was dropping, she noticed that students had trouble walking to and from the bar in the square. 

“It was a big thing. Hopefully there will be a way to start it up again,” Cook said. 

Jaime Lopez can be reached at 581-2812 or jlopez2@eiu.edu.