Cody Luk
Editor at Large
As the end of the semester is around the corner, students are often overwhelmed with projects, papers and upcoming exams and finalizing senior theses and projects. With the stress that the end of year brings, many took the opportunity to relax and enjoy music from different eras at “Through the Decades,” the first music festival at the University from 10 p.m. to midnight Wednesday on the Lawn.
“The music is nice; I like the carnival feel and the different booths – it’s a good opportunity for clubs to advertise,” said Justine Alandy-Dy, sophomore physics major. “I like that it’s at night, and it feels better when you study all night and (can) have a break.”
There were three stages at the music festival. DJ Santana (ULV alumnus Steven Santana) played songs from the 1920s to 1950s on the Lawn, while at the same time, DJ Spré (senior computer science and engineering major Raymond Gonzalez) played songs from 1960s to 1980s at the courtyard behind Vista La Verne. DJ Deric (local artist Deric Berberabe) took over DJ Spré’s stage halfway through the event and played music from the 1990s to contemporary music. The music from different time periods were altered with a slight electronic dance music feel.
Alyssa Ramos, sophomore speech communication major and Campus Activities Board concert chairwoman, and Reanna Hilario, junior communications major and CAB spirit chairwoman, organized the event together. They came up with the idea in August 2015, and the actual event planning process took about a month and a half.
Ramos and Hilario both enjoy attending music festivals and concerts and Hilario is also a music minor.
“We are both obsessed with concerts,” Ramos said. “We came up with the idea to throw La Verne’s very first music festival, because we thought it would be a fun new event that hasn’t been attempted yet. And because music festivals of all kinds have become increasingly more popular, we thought the students of ULV would enjoy this new event.”
The event was purposely planned toward the end of the school year, because Ramos and Hilario wanted to make it a big event to wrap up the year. Clubs and organizations also had booths to fundraise by selling food and publicize their events.
“Clubs are here giving their support, and we advertised to get a lot of people to come out,” Hilario said. “It’s a big event, and it helped us support (the clubs) and have them support us too. The clubs are not only publicizing their events – they’re publicizing our event too.”
“Through the Decades” was also an event in collaboration with Phi Delta Theta fraternity’s 24-hour teeter-totter event, which raises awareness and fundraises for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
The fraternity brothers take turns riding a teeter-totter and the teeter-totter does not stand still at anytime for 24 hours.
Hilario was happy about the event and felt it was successful.
“I’m really happy people are enjoying the event and the food, and the clubs are getting their support,” Hilario said.
Ramos would like to see a similar event on campus in the future.
“We tried to get as many clubs and organizations involved to make everyone feel included on this campus,” Ramos said. “Because this is the first attempt at a festival like this one, my main hope is that it works out so great that CAB wants to do it again next year, only better.”
Cody Luk can be reached at cody.luk@laverne.edu.
