As a freshman at Penn State, I have been hearing about THON since New Student Orientation, and as much as people have explained it over the months, nothing could truly capture it until I walked in.

For those of you who have yet to experience THON Weekend, or those of you who support from afar but may never actually attend, these are a few things I could not have predicted until I got into the BJC.

A Stimulus Overload

The second you walk in the gates, you are greeted by every color in the rainbow. The crowd blurs together into one peppy stampede of everyone trying to get down to their respective sections. Gigantic Greek letters are passed overhead and bubbles float into the concourse. Announcements play overhead and the sound of a cover band drifts through the air. You have arrived.

Temperature Changes

Within five minutes, I felt the temperature noticeably fluctuate at least 10º. With the amount of people inside the venue, I was expecting a hot and sweaty atmosphere, but it feels almost breezy inside. The time passed faster because my body was constantly adjusting to a different temperature.

The Line Dance

All I had heard about the Line Dance was that it was a song and dance routine written and performed every so often throughout the 46-hour period. Loaded with pop culture and Penn State references, the lengthy routine stretches out the dancers and the surrounding stands through various dance steps. Although it goes on for about five minutes, people seemed to learn it almost instantaneously and everyone had the moves down flawlessly within a few calls of “Dancer Relation captains to the stage!”

There’s No Concept of Time

Obviously, there are no clocks displaying the passage of time so that the dancers don’t know what point of the weekend it is, but the constant stimulus truly makes it feel like a few minutes could have passed since you’ve been in there. The lighting changes and the constant strobing lasers reminded me of the effect casinos try to have to keep you inside for as long as possible and make you forget what time you even went in.

Charitable Frat Guys

The stands are filled with happy frat guys holding up their Greek letters like it’s all they have ever wanted to do. After a few hours, I thought they would surely stop bouncing around their carefully decorated signs, but they brought the same consistent energy, showing everyone that they just are happy to be there.

Concert Vibes

The energy of the crowd and the music gave off the same energy as the period at a concert before the actual artist you are there to see comes out. The DJs and the cover bands hyped up the crowd continuously, but of course, it wasn’t leading up to anything else except more dancing for hours on end.