The 21st annual KWUR week running through the coming weekend features a number of upcoming artists never before seen at the University or in the greater St. Louis area.

The festival was set to begin last Sunday, March 24 with a local showcase, but the showcase was postponed to April due to inclement weather.

As a result, KWUR Week kicked off Tuesday with a three-piece classical piano performance by St. Louis native Choochoo Hu and will continue this week with a series of live shows at the Gargoyle, including the electronic music headliner, Doc Daneeka, and the highly anticipated Canadian wave band Metz.

All shows are free to students with a University ID.

Senior Mickey Bradford, general manager of KWUR, said he is excited for the visiting artists.

“Our main rock act, Metz, is getting a lot of hype. They have just started increasing the amount of shows they are playing. Doc Daneeka, the main electronic act, is from Germany. These are pretty rare opportunities, and both [are] artists who have received a good amount of acclaim in the past year but still haven’t broken through yet,” Bradford said.

“Part of our stated goal is bringing artists that haven’t punched through the surface yet in terms of popularity but show promise,” he added.

KWUR staff considered at least 15 other acts, including rock bands Bleached and Liars, as well as electronic artist Sepulchre.

“We sent out emails to a number of people, and of all of them think Metz was a good choice. They are probably the most popular artist on KWUR that we picked. It pulls from our DJ body and things that people are hearing on our station and what they’re exposed to,” junior Laurel Morris, KWUR events director, said.

The Brainstems, a band of five Washington University alumni, will open for Metz on Saturday night. No current students are performing in KWUR Week this year.

The first performance, by Choochoo Hu, which took place in the 560 Music Center on Delmar Boulevard, drew a small crowd of community members and fewer than 10 University students, a smaller turnout than what is anticipated at the upcoming events.

“I feel very fortunate that I heard about this event. [Hu] played beautifully,” sophomore Stephanie Wang said.

KWUR, currently stationed out of the Women’s Building, is in the process of relocating to the Danforth University Center. It will begin broadcasting out of the DUC in July.

“It has the potential to be a positive move; it’s just been hard to work out with all of the equipment,” Morris said.