Every May, students, faculty and community members alike gather to hear the euphony of electric guitars, drums, keyboards and Greyhound voices ring out for six straight hours during the annual Houndstock event. However, this year the marathon of student bands will be silenced.

According to House sponsor Sarah Wolff, the student government group that has always sponsored the event, will no longer be funding or running the event.

“I would say the number one reason why we have chosen to no longer sponsor Houndstock is because of the weather,” Wolff said. “For three of the past four years, we’ve had to move the event inside, which I think makes it lose its ambience.

“Overall, the cost to run the event keeps going up, and the number of students attending it keeps going down. So we won’t be sponsoring it, but other clubs and organizations are welcome to.”

One organization that was considering hosting Houndstock is WHJE, the student-run radio station, which in past years helped with the event. However, according to WHJE sponsor Brian Spilbeler, the station has not chosen to take over the event.

“A lot of people have to be involved,” Spilbeler said. “There’s equipment to be juggled, the needs of all student bands and their families to be taken care of, as well as the supervision of students in the audience. It’s just not something we can take on alone.”

While student interest in Houndstock has declined in past years, Max Holtman, member of the band Dead Ringers and junior, said he will certainly miss the event.

“I feel disappointed because of the fun times that people are going to miss out on. It’s also hard for any Carmel band that is getting started (so without Houndstock there’s) one less opportunity for them,” Holtman said.

Holtman and his band played at Houndstock in 2011 and 2012, and he said his band would perform again at the event this year if it weren’t canceled. However, he did  say he had been frustrated with the tight guidelines of prior years.

“My least favorite part of participating in Houndstock (was) the strict rules, especially their lyric-checking process,” Holtman said. “My band last year was covering (the) Foo Fighters song ‘Arlandria,’ and they said we couldn’t do it because of the line ‘I don’t care it’s all the same, watch it all go up in flames’ promoted arson.”

Wolff added the event brought along many liabilities for the school as well, since it used a third party for the sound equipment and because of the long duration.

“This isn’t the first time Houndstock hasn’t run,” Wolff said. “It ebbs and flows. It ran for a while, then it didn’t run, then it ran in downtown Carmel for a while before coming back to our campus. Maybe it just needs a break, and then it’ll start up again with some fresh ideas and fresh air breathing in it again.”