With dismal gray skies and the threat of rain, the second annual Fountain Fling on the Mount Vernon campus drew a smaller turnout than last year’s event.
Fountain Fling, which was launched last year as a combination of Program Board’s Spring Fling and Mount Vernon Programming Council’s Fountain Day, had to relocate events from the main quad of the Mount Vernon campus to the parking lot of the Lloyd Gym due to the weather.
“We still expected a lot of people to show up,” said Claire Kozik, a freshman on the MVPC who helped run the event. “It would have been nice if it were outside.”
Kozik said approximately 1,000 students filed in and out of the day’s activities, though the event held approximately 250 students consistently, a decrease in comparison to the hundreds who spent the day at the outdoor event last year.
Kozik said despite the indoor venue, Program Board and the MVPC kept many of the activities held last year, including tie-dying Fountain Fling T-shirts, spray tattoos, a moon bounce, and a free barbecue.
Kozik added jokingly, “And we have a really good band. They apparently have a famous lead singer.”
Headlining Fountain Fling was Boston-based indie jam band State Radio, whose lead singer, Chad Stokes Urmston, led the now-defunct band Dispatch. State Radio toured GW as part of the Save My Oceans tour, an initiative run by L.A.-based Participant Media, which held events at GW last week to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.
“I didn’t know anybody who knew [State Radio] beforehand,” said Alexandra Larkin, a sophomore MVPC volunteer. “I was here last year when we had it outdoors, and I think a lot of people were going to come back to the event anyway. They really like it.”
The band took to the stage in Lloyd Gym around 5:30 p.m. and played for about 75 minutes. Prior to their performance, two student bands, East Coast Caravan and Hopper Trick, performed as audience members wandered in.
“They were alright, so-so,” said sophomore Kaitlin Rittgers of the opening bands. “The turnout’s not that much compared to last year, but it’s still decent. There’s just so much free stuff and it’s fun so I thought I’d come. I think it’s my first time up here this semester, though.”
Despite a smaller turnout, State Radio still performed for an energetic group, inspiring many audience members to crowd-surf and dance during the set. While attendance dwindled slightly as the show went on, the group was still asked for an encore as the remaining crowd chanted, “One more song.”
Like many attendees, sophomore Steven Azar, who spent his freshman year living on the Vern, said he came to Fountain Fling after a good experience at the event last year.
“It was a lot better last year. There were so many people, and now it’s really unfortunate that it has to be inside. I think they still did a good job though,” Azar said.
Even though Azar said he wasn’t very familiar with State Radio, the concert was still a drawing factor for him.
“It’s just really cool to come to a free concert anyway, and in D.C. you don’t really get that chance,” he said.
