If you went to Celebrate State last Friday, the newest “music festival” at Penn State, you are a member of a small minority. According to Amy Zeller, one of the event’s organizers, there were around 400 people who attended the event throughout the day, including “a lot of people who were here anyway enjoying the sun on the HUB lawn.” The crowd grew to almost 500 around 7 p.m. for the Flobots’ performance.

The Flobots were good, but definitely not worthy of being the headliner of an event such as this one. Zeller said she felt they were really relevant to students, though I felt Asher Roth’s appearance last year had more relevance than the Flobots’ did this year. They played most of their two albums, including their hit, “Handlebars”. There were a couple dozen fans at the front who spent most of the show pumping their fists in the air, while the majority stood stoically or sat on the grass.

The mastermind behind the event, Ryan Fitzgerald, conceived Celebrate State as a way for “student groups to celebrate what they do at Penn State” and as “a time for people to forget about school and be carefree and happy-go-lucky.” It seems like a lot of people I know manage to do the latter almost every weekend, without the aid of an expensive outdoor concert.

In case you forgot, UPAC allocated $25,000 dollars to this event, $5000 more than was given to Movin’ On. This comes to around $50 per person who attended. I’ll let you decide if this is a good use of UPAC funds.

[Pic]