Angelo Leitner-Wise
apl002@marietta.edu
Last Friday, Sept. 16, students gathered on the Harrison lawn under the harvest moon for the annual Pioneer Activities Council (PAC) Music Festival. Equipped with a beer and wine garden, this was the first school-sponsored event geared toward students, with the exception of Senior Send-Off, to feature alcohol in several years.
The festival featured three acts covering a wide range of interests.
Opening for the evening was Los Angeles based stand up comedian Kristin Key, with a unique, intentionally crude comedy routine accompanied by an acoustic guitar. Key also emceed the event, entertaining the crowd in between sets.
Key was followed by Scottish one-man-band That Drummer That DJ. Living up to his name, his set was comprised of remixes of popular songs and live drumming. The songs ranged from Justin Bieber to The Ramones and were accompanied by his intense and energetic drum solos that imbued the crowd with liveliness.
The third and final artist was Rock/Pop outlet, The Strive. Hailing from Kansas City, MO; their set was reminiscent of early 2000s Fall Out Boy, a sound that seemed to polarize the audience, causing equal amounts of people to leave and enter the festival respectively.
“We saw all of these acts perform at the NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) conference in Grand Rapids last October,” Amanda Davis, chief operations director of PAC, said. According to their website they are “the recognized leader in higher education providing knowledge, ideas and resources for campus life.”
“We all thought they were great and decided to try to get them to play here at Marietta,” Davis said.
A major selling point of the festival was the presence of two student favorites: tacos and beer.
The Nacho Average Taco Truck, which was actually more of a cart than a truck, set up shop near the entrance and made sure that the smell of fresh tacos wafted through the air for the entire event, enticing students to purchase the food.
The beer garden was complete with candle lit tables, Christmas lights, bouncers guarding the entrances and of course, plenty of beer.
“Although I’m not able to participate in the drinking, it’s cool that the music fest had beer,” said Sophomore Nick Cuaresma, 19. The presence of alcohol raised questions from students about the future of other school sponsored events, such as Doo Dah Day.
“I’ve heard stories about how Doo Dah Day was back in the 70s and 80s, and now that the college seems to be opening up to allowing of-age students to drink at campus events again, it could be like that again by the time I graduate,” Cuaresma explained.
If music, tacos and beer weren’t enough to get students out of their rooms, PAC promised free tank tops to the first 150 people in attendance.
The tanks seemed to be successful in getting students there, but not in getting them to stay.
“Most of my friends just got the shirt and then left,” freshman Hannah Posson said.
“That being said I hope it’s something they continue to do, because who doesn’t like free stuff?”
To view PAC’s photos from the event, follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/MariettaPAC/photos/?tab=album&album_id=911482925623434
