Jorge Valencia
The end-of-the-year school concert is a part of college life. Towson University has Tigerfest, University of Maryland, Baltimore County has Quadmania and this university has Art Attack. Now, no matter how hard Student Entertainment Events works, there’s always going to be some students pissed off about the concert on a university with more than 25,000 undergraduate students.
I want to understand this. I want to find out why it appears as if other schools in our area always kick the Terrapins’ collective ass in booking cool bands. I want to find out why it seems every year there are many people displeased with the university’s biggest entertainment event for students.
To do that, I will drive northbound on Interstate 95. Tigerfest is the same weekend as Art Attack. I will walk McKeldin Mall and the plastic-covered floor of Byrd Stadium, as well as the beer-soaked grass of the field where Tigerfest is held. Art Attack goes first, on Friday.
Friday, May 6: The weather is not on Art Attack’s side. It’s windy as hell in Byrd, and it feels like it’s 40 degrees outside. Enough people show up to fill almost half of the stadium floor, which is barricaded and covered with a protective plastic covering.
The three bands SEE brought — Chevelle, Gin Blossoms and Guster — get the crowd going. However, it’s clear each one caters to its own niche. People sing along to Gin Blossoms’ “Hey Jealousy” and “Follow You Down.” People mosh to Chevelle’s “Vitamin R” and “The Red.” People dance and sing along to Guster’s “Amsterdam” and the ill-fated country version of “Fa Fa.”
There’s enough of a turnout to say SEE succeeded with the concert portion of Art Attack. Yet there is a constant line of students marching like ants up and down the stands, in and out of the stadium. That makes sense. It’s not likely the same people who headbang to Chevelle will raise their lighters or cell phones to Guster or Gin Blossoms.
On a different level, it’s a good move for SEE to book eclectic groups. Thanks to that, there are both people headbanging and others waving their cell phones.
TOWSON — Saturday, May 7: The first thing I notice about Tigerfest is the Beer Garden. A freaking Beer Garden. It’s far from the concert stage and is strictly regulated — two forms of identification necessary and you have to drink your beverage inside the garden — but it is in the same field.
Towson’s Campus Activities Board had a good idea with the Garden. It’s undeniable that people pregame before these concerts, and CAB came up with a smart way to responsibly address the issue.
The concert stage and the Garden share a large grassy field with the rest of the activities in Tigerfest. For the most part, they are comparable to the ones on the mall for Art Attack — vendors selling faux concert posters and an awesome gladiator joust, among other things. (Actually, SEE was nicer to students because it gave away T-shirts for people to tie dye, while Towson’s CAB sold Tigerfest shirts for $5.)
But the activities share the same field with the concert, which gives Tigerfest an actual festival feel. It feels more like a party than Art Attack did, which I largely attribute to the fact that the whole thing is in the same place. One festival, one location — that’s a good idea. (For the record, Art Attack was held entirely on the mall until the late 1990s.)
And then there is the concert. While the Terrapins travel to 1992 and 1997 with Gin Blossoms and Guster, the Tigers travel to 1997 with Third Eye Blind and Vertical Horizon. Both groups are slightly outdated, but Third Eye Blind was arguably bigger than Guster and Gin Blossoms at their peaks.
Tigerfest’s concert, too, makes it feel more like a festival. People crowd surf between sets, not just while the music plays. There are also a dozen women propped up on guys’ shoulders, wearing tank tops and waving their arms in the air and cheering with the rest of the crowd when Third Eye Blind singer Stephan Jenkins graces the stage, like he’s some sort of golden god.
Jenkins can’t hit all of the notes to his songs, and he sprinkles his set with cheesy Woos! and Chck-chck-chks!, but people don’t care; to most songs, people sing along, all smiles. They stay around long enough for Third Eye Blind to come back after its set and play a two-song encore, unlike at Art Attack, where people left during Guster’s set.
SEE did what it was supposed to do with Art Attack: It got students out of their dorms, onto the mall and into Byrd for some good entertainment. But it’s mind-boggling for Towson to have a better spring festival than the state’s flagship university.
I used to think Towson was the backup school for everyone who wasn’t accepted to this university. It seems like its entertainment group outsmarts ours, even though they’re not supposed to be as smart.
Maybe it’s the weather.
Or maybe they just know how to have a damn good time.
Former Diversions Editor Jorge Valencia can be reached at diversions@dbk.umd.edu.
