Fall Fest disappoints, but bands see promise in future

It was Fall: the leaves were changing colors and the air was brisk. It was a Fest: nine student bands played, and Yale Dining Services set up shop with free food. But was it a Fall Fest?

JULIA TIERNAN/YH DISBAND: David Tittle, MC '99, and Shannon Morrison, TC '00, of Paper Tigers, perform for the small audience attending Fall Fest.

"To judge whether or not [Fall Fest] was a success, I would need to know what [the Yale College Council's] expectations were," Pinstripe drummer Hrishikesh Hirway, MC '00, said. "My expectations were fairly low, so I don't know if I'm saying much when I say they were met," he said.

Fall Fest Chair Tya Harris, TC '00, said YCC's expectations were met. "Our goal was to have a laid-back event where people could come out, have some free food, and listen to some bands, and that's what happened," Harris said. "We didn't want anything bigger. It was mellow."

But students did want something bigger. "I didn't think it would be the size of Spring Fling, but since it was open to the entire Yale population, and it was on Cross Campus, I expected more," David Lee, MC '00, said. He added, "It wasn't advertised well at all. I didn't see any posters for it." Pamela Bookman, PC '01, said, "I didn't even know Fall Fest was happening until I walked right through it."

Harris admitted that "publicity was probably the biggest problem. There was no publicity chair for the event, and there probably should have been." Instead, the YCC printed about 100 posters and then relied on individual council members to put them up. In addition, the YCC sent out an e-mail to the E-Bulletin list of about 2,200 students and put up a bedsheet banner on the Elm Street gate, YCC President Zach Kaufman, SY '00, said.

"Publicity could have been better, yeah," Kaufman said. "Postering was late because part of the deal for student organizations co-sponsoring the event was that they would get their names on the posters, and some of the groups were really late getting us their $10 checks [for co-sponsorship]."

Since Fall Break caused an exodus from campus, turnout for Fall Fest was unspectacular. "There was no precedent for us to know how many people would go out of town, but there really was no other date to have it on," Harris said. "It was the first Saturday since the beginning of the year with the fewest academic, social, and religious conflicts, and no home football game," Kaufman explained.

"The scheduling was a bit of a mess-up," Hirway said. "It should have been earlier in the year. I think a home football game would have brought more people to [Fall Fest]. Then, [the event] could have been scheduled after the game--say, from 4:00 to 9:00 instead of 12:00 to 5:00. And the weather would have been warmer--our guitarist's fingers were numb."

Fall Fest was "not at all modeled on Spring Fling," Kaufman stressed. But the comparison is inevitable: like Spring Fling, Fall Fest featured student bands and dining hall food in a large outdoor location. Ska and Bones singer Namwali Serpell, BR '01, said, "There were so many people and so much enthusiasm at Spring Fling, it was really exciting and fun to be onstage. [Fall Fest] didn't even come close. We felt like it was much less exciting than we expected."

Ska and Bones bassist Lincoln Else, DC '99, was disappointed in YCC's preparations. "The actual event was not run very well. [YCC] indicated that they would provide a sound system, and they did, but there was no one there to run it," he said. "The bands had to set up and run their own sound, and we didn't necessarily know how."

According to Kaufman, "We hired an electrician [to do the sound], but he didn't show up." Nevertheless, he didn't see sound as a problem. "It didn't really matter, because [YCC Associate Ephram Lustgarten, PC '99] happened to be there, and he's also a member of WYBC, so he did it."

Fall Fest's other main goal, Kaufman said, was "to be a showcase for student bands." According to Six Pack Annie guitarist Tate Gardner, SY '00, that part of the plan was achieved. His band landed a gig at a "big keg party" at the University of Massachusetts as a result.

Though students were nonplussed and not everyone was satisfied, band members agreed that Fall Fest is a good idea and hoped YCC would continue it in the future. "The ideas were there, though they were poorly managed," Hirway, whose band has twice tried unsuccessfully to play at Spring Fling, said. "I don't want to be too harsh about it because I'm glad it happened. I would never give up on rock."

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