By Glen Ess (The Cascade) – Email
For the past five years, the biology and chemistry student association (BCSA) have come to view the “Big Bang” as their flagship event. Last Friday saw the fifth iteration of the Big Bang held in the Student Union Building (SUB).
While the event drew in a crowd that was only slightly smaller than last year’s version, which was held at Aftermath, it felt far smaller due to the vast spaces of the SUB. The event featured a bar and lounge area in the atrium, live music in the central section of the Great Hall, and food service in the Canoe’s lobby. This splitting of the event meant that none of the three spaces featured much in the way of crowds, or atmosphere. As a result, the event felt flat.
All three bands (Coastline Pilots, Marry Me, and the Deadset), as well as student / rapper Josh Goodman, struggled to fill their section with students. With students moving in and out of the hall to get a drink or food, or sitting down and talking with friends, the largest crowd any of the musical acts raised numbered a paltry 20 students. While the music was still audible outside of the Great Hall, it lacked any of the intensity or emotion of a live show.
According to Gagan Mahil, one of the event’s organizers, the event was dogged with problems. “We honestly didn’t know if we had the capacity to throw the Big Bang this year,” he said. “It’s much later in the semester, and we’ve all got term papers, lab finals, and exams to worry about.”
Mahil also stated that while the event felt more sparse, that it was due to the new setting of the SUB.
“If we had this number of people in Aftermath [the event’s former location], it would have felt packed,” he said. “We’ve got a lot more space here [in the SUB] and everything’s more spread out. I think next year it’ll be organized much differently.”
With the Big Bang being the latest in a series of larger scale events thrown on campus, it’s clear that student groups are still acclimatizing to the new building. The search is still on for an effective way for students to host large events in the SUB.
