Vanessa Paredes/Life! Editor
This summer was far from quiet at the University.
Tuesday, July 17, FIU’s Campus Life brought to the University a unique music-filled event to students: Summer Fest.
With the show of a panther ID, students were given a bracelet that allowed them to get free food, gifts, including a Summer Fest tank top, and the opportunity to get information on campus engagement with many major FIU organizations.
“We came up with this event because we were lacking summer programming for summer B, and we were getting a lot of inquires from the incoming freshmen that there was nothing to do on campus, so we came up with this idea of a summer concert,” said John Parmenter, senior graphic designer of Campus Life.
The event was originally supposed to be held outside in the lawn by the Betty Chapman Plaza.
Inclement weather called for quick rearrangements, and the concert was swiftly moved to the Graham Center ballrooms.
Students lined up outside in the rain, excited to enter Summer Fest. Campus Life brought in some DJ’s and musicians they believed FIU students would particularly enjoy the most.
“We had a Summer Fest committee where we selected DJ ZOG. We worked with him with homecoming before, and he seems to have a good following here at FIU. Then we picked a couple of local cover bands that some of our committee had seen in person, and then we went with Tony Lucca coming off of the show, ‘The Voice,’” said Parmenter.
The event was specifically promoted to the incoming freshmen with the intentions of showing what FIU has to offer on campus. Orientations informed incoming freshmen all summer, resulting in a huge turn out.
“As a freshman, I was really excited about this event; it was my first event, so I was really excited to see what an FIU event was really like,” said freshman Caroline Lorenzo, freshman marketing major.
Everyone lined up for a free meal and also received shirts, sunglasses and other goodies, and they danced in the ballroom to the DJ and musician’s music throughout the night.
“Good house music, good flow,” said freshman Brien Shellen liberal studies major.
FIU gave incoming freshmen and other students an event to remember the summer by. The University can look forward to summers just a little more heat with Summer Fest.
-vanessa.paredes@fiusm.com
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