The Collegian

Issue date: 5/8/07 Section: Opinion

Early Saturday, I was inebriated and ready to enjoy myself at the biggest on-campus event of the year: Gaelstock.

Unfortunately it did not live up to the hype. Who is to blame? Program Board (PB).

For that matter, neither did Program Board. This year, Program Board has done nothing to improve on events and failed to provide recurring events, which had been successful in years past.

PB has two main events during the school year: Oasis and Gaelstock. Oasis did not happen due to events out of PB's control but they did ensure that there would be an event to replace it.

If there was one, I would like to know what it was.

Although I would like to point out that there was a group on Facebook called "Oasis in the Spring" with 364 groups members as of Sunday, but did not receive a response. Yet, there was another group on Facebook that wanted Rebelution to come to Gaelstock and, low and behold, they performed on Saturday. That group had only 64 members.

Outside of a handful of events, I do not remember many of PB's activities.

There was the Murder Mystery Party, which drew about 20 people back in October. PB put on the Chocolate Festival in April. A source that attended both Gaelstock and the Festival said that they would rather attend the Chocolate Festival than Saturday's event. To the Festival's credit, the source said that it was the best PB event all year.

It took a lot for me to remember the events done by PB this year. This could be because of publicity.

Even for Gaelstock I remember seeing posters up maybe a month before the event but not much more than the posters. Furthermore, the guest registration deadline was not widely known and not posted on any Gaelstock advertisement. I did see the notices to get them registered but not the deadline. That could be part of the reason why the turnout of Gaelstock seemed to be about half that of last year's turnout. As printed in an article last week in The Collegian, 1,100 students attended the event last year. By Friday, only about 500 pre-sale tickets were sold.

When Phantom Planet was on stage, I would say 40 to 50 people were front and center during their performance and only when they started playing California did some of the other 250 or so people left at Gaelstock stormed the fence to cheer them on.

It's about putting on a show and entertaining the students.

From what I have heard, PB did not live up to the hype.

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