Josh Dun of Twenty One Pilots is held up by students as he crowd surfs during Saturday’s concert. Matthew Moore/The Fordham Ram
By Kyle Morton
Fordham’s annual Spring Weekend has come and gone, leaving students with memories of Humans of New York, a Colourist, a pair of pilots and a Girl Code star. Fordham’s Campus Activities Board (CAB) put together a lineup consisting of a lecture from Brandon Stanton, the creator of Humans of New York, on Thursday night, a performance from DJing act Solidisco in the A-Lot on Friday night, a concert with Fordham’s own The Suits and The Colourists opening up for headlining act twenty one pilots on Saturday, and a comedic performance from “Girl Code” star Jamie Lee.
On Thursday night, students lined up outside Lombardi Fieldhouse hoping to gain entrance to hear Brandon Stanton speak about his popular social media project, Humans of New York. The project’s Instagram account boasts a staggering 2.9 million followers.
Monica Fafaul, FCRH ’18, was one of the first to arrive to stand in the long line of students. “I got there around like 5:30, and we were in the first 10 people in line. So we had front row seats in the center, which was really cool.”
In his speech, Stanton emphasized the importance of working hard in achieving one’s goals. “Your ideas aren’t great unless you put effort into what you want to do,” Stanton said.
Amanda Reed, FCRH ’18, was impressed by how in depth Stanton goes when he approaches his subjects. “He talked a lot about getting to know people,” Reed said.
“I liked how he talked about how when he meets people, he sits down with them on the streets of New York and has a very personal talk with them. It’s cool to see insight of how it runs.”
“I thought it was interesting that he gets rejected a lot,” Fafaul said.
“He has one of those success stories about losing a job in finance or economics and still doing something significant with his life, and I thought that was really cool,” Reed added.
On Saturday, it was time for musical performances to take over Spring Weekend. After previously winning the battle of the bands at Rodrigue’s Coffee House, The Suits won the right to open up for the then-unknown headliner. The Colourist, a southern California based group, was added as an additional opening act. Their performances led up to that of Twenty One Pilots, the Columbus, Ohio-based duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, who was announced as the headliner on Tuesday, April 14.
Tyler Bailey, FCRH ’18, and Kevin O’Sullivan, GSB ’18, were both in attendance on Saturday and offered their thoughts on the performances.
“Their [twenty one pilots] crowd interaction was really good,” O’Sullivan said.
“I thought they did a really good job picking fun bands,” Bailey added. “I like how they included a student band with The Suits because they’re really good. The Colourist was very enjoyable as well.”
Twenty one pilots played some of their most high-energy songs for the Fordham crowd, with hits like “Holding On To You,” “Migraine,” “Guns For Hands” and “Car Radio” included in their set.
Saturday night brought with it the highly anticipated Under the Tent dance. A massive tent on Martyrs’ Lawn played home to one of the most significant campus events of the entire school year, as students dressed up and got together in a different sort of environment that is not experienced very much in college.
Spring Weekend wrapped up on Sunday night with a comedic performance from one of the stars of MTV’s “Girl Code,” Jamie Lee.
“She was so funny,” Reed said. “She was really vulgar, but I thought it was necessary, in a sense. She gave us a lot of comedic relief. She was also very personable. Her one-liners about little things were great.”
Overall, it seems as though Spring Weekend 2015 was a hit with the student body. It will all happen again next year, as Fordham Spring Weekend 2016 will bring a whole new group of performers and entertainers to the Fordham community.
