Nightlife in Oxford has always been a loud ordeal.
From parties on campus to bars on the Square, noise radiates from places all around town, and chances are, Vault Entertainment is there.
Vault is a premier entertainment company in Oxford, providing the University and other surrounding areas with anything from fraternity parties to big-scale concerts with internationally recognized artists such as Ace Hood, Rae Sremmurd and Tyler, The Creator.
The company is run by two current Ole Miss students. The owners, founders and twin brothers Michael and Stephen Greer got their start at their own 16th birthday party. The Clinton natives turned the building where they practiced pole vaulting, nicknamed The Vault, into a personal party venue, hiring a DJ and planned the event themselves.
“It was a huge success. All of our friends came. We probably had two or three hundred people show up,” Stephen Greer said. “After that happened we thought, ‘This is something we can do.’”
After researching equipment and digging for loose change in all places imaginable, the brothers were finally able to acquire all the gear they felt was necessary to reproduce their 16th birthday party.
“We literally pulled pennies out of sock drawers and off the floors of our cars and trucks and put it all into a pile and said, ‘Alright, this is how much money we have to make an investment in some lights. Let’s make it happen,’” Michael Greer said. “So, we did.”
Their first event had between two and three hundred people in attendance, and marked the beginning of a long series of what they call “Vault Parties.”
The Greer brothers continued to host these parties throughout their time in high school. Each event was a major success, and as they headed off to Ole Miss, they knew it was time to take a different approach.
“We had this itching urge to take this entertainment company up into Oxford, and just be able to provide the DJ, the band, and other services for big fraternity and sorority events,” Stephen Greer said. “Freshman year, when we got up to Oxford, we kind of just hit the ground running.”
Vault did just that.
“There has been a lot of sweat, late nights and loud music over the course of 2015,” said William Ault, a close partner and friend to the Greers and Vault Entertainment. “Going from three people to a team of 20 – it’s been a pretty amazing learning experience in general.”
The company has gone from doing small-scale events to big headlining acts such as Riff Raff and Waka Flocka Flame. They have the equipment, manpower and expertise to produce four concert-grade shows in a night, and if you ask them, that’s just the beginning.
“We want to have a branch of Vault Entertainment at every SEC school,” Michael Greer said. “We want to do the large-scale local festivals like the ‘Double Deckers.’ The third goal would be corporate events, assisting corporations in large-scale conferences and events. Things of that nature.”
Although the Greers didn’t intend to make a career out of Vault Entertainment originally, they’ve gained a new perspective since their 16th birthday party.
“It has gone from a hobby, to a small business, to what I plan on doing full time,” Stephen Greer said. “We are a very legitimate business, but, five years ago, if you would have asked me if Vault Entertainment was going to be a corporation I would have laughed in your face and said ‘I’m just enjoying being a DJ.’”
