Tie dye was the theme and covered Kellogg Circle from 6 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday as Emporia State channeled Woodstock with this year’s Flintstock event. The Paperclips opened for bands Antennas Up and John Henry and the Engine.
“We tried not to go on any avant-garde jam sessions or anything like we might have in Woodstock if that had been the case,” said Jake Briscoe, Paperclips’ guitarist.
Graduate adviser for the event Katie Moldenhauer said the nameFlintstock is a play on Woodstock, with Emporia State being in the Flint Hills. She said it’s an end of the year celebration that ESU has had for a long time and after not having it for a couple years, the Union Activities Council brought it back last year and it was a success.
“It’s a good opportunity just to enjoy yourself even if it’s just for five minutes, to get away from studying or finishing up projects or whatnot and it’s just completely free,” Moldenhauer said.
There were free corndogs, funnel cakes and popcorn as well as an inflatable obstacle course, inflatable slide and a graffiti wall for people to spray paint. Groups from around campus and businesses from the community including Airsoft Club, Greek Life and Midas Touch tanning salon had tables at the event. Senior Week had a table with a water balloon toss with a twist – water balloons filled with slime. Lacey Hansen, Senior Week chair said the slime went with the event’s theme “Nickin’ it Old School.”
“When I was asking around seeing what people really wanted to see with senior week and the Nickelodeon theme, kind of the resounding answer was slime, so that was kind of a lot of pressure,” Hansen said.
Seniors were given the chance to enter a raffle at the table and CDs and DVDs donated by CDTradepost were given to those whose names were drawn in between bands.
“Only seniors can get tickets and they can get tickets for participating in the slime activity and then get candy bars if they slime somebody,” Hansen said.
Moldenhauer said Ha Ha Tonka was originally supposed to play, but the band is currently touring, so UAC booked John Henry and the Engine instead. The Paperclips earned their opening slot by winning the Battle of the Bands in February. Moldenhauer said members of UAC went to a National Association for Campus Activities conference in Arlington, Texas, and saw Antennas Up play and decided that they would be a good band for Flintstock. The Paperclips and Antennas Up are both from Kansas City, Mo., and John Henry and the Engine is from St. Louis/ Columbia, Mo.
“We had all of UAC, the council and committee members vote on who we would like and that’s who won,” Moldenhauer said.
Briscoe said there was some trouble with wind and equipment for the bands; one had a cymbal fall and cut a microphone cable and various other pieces fell. Bassist Jason Richards said they were lucky none of the accidents happened with their stuff, but they did have to pay special attention to drummer Chris Evan’s set.
“We had to like rig up this like drum set inside of itself so everything interlocked like a Jenga puzzle,” Richards said.
Briscoe said that despite the wind, he felt good about the show. He said that if it hadn’t been in Emporia, people wouldn’t have come because of the weather, or they would have been too busy enjoying the corndogs and funnel cakes to listen.
“It feels great, we love being in Emporia. Coming to Emporia can’t be a bad time, you know what I mean. It’s a lot more inviting and responsive than a lot of towns,” Briscoe said.
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