Shwayze brings Skimmerfest success

Attendance increased by more than 50 percent at this year’s revamped Skimmerfest on Saturday.

Organized by the Class Boards, the Social Planning and Events Committee and Penn Athletics , Skimmerfest took place after the first home football game of the season , against Villanova . It featured a live performance by Shwayze, as well as other attractions such as laser tag, a photobooth and other carnival activities.

“We took a gamble in trying this concept,“ said College senior Allison Bart, Vice President of Internal Affairs on the 2015 Class Board . Bart was also on the executive committee that planned Skimmerfest. “We wanted to sort of make it this post-game celebration with Penn Athletics — we changed everything about it this year,” she said.

While in previous years Skimmerfest was a walk-through event located at College Green , this year the College Board and SPEC attempted to create more of a festival-like and cohesive event. Headlined by rapper Shwayze, this was the first year that Skimmerfest was held in Penn Park . In previous years, the event was held before rather than after the football opener.

Extra funding for the event was provided by Penn Athletics, and despite Skimmerfest’s larger scale, the funding of other school events will not be affected.

“We wanted to think about how to boost attendance,” Bart said. Many of the changes made between this year and last were in order to further engage the Penn community in the event. Having a more recognizable headliner and reorganizing the structure of the event seems to have paid off. Turnout at Skimmerfest increased, rising from 2,000 students last year to roughly 3,500 students this year, according to Bart.

“We were pleasantly surprised by how many people came,” said junior and SEAS chair Chloé le Comte, who had done much of the planning for Skimmerfest over the summer. She partially attributed the high turnout to Shwayze’s presence.

The higher turnout, however, led to some drawbacks that left student opinions on Skimmerfest mixed. Some students were disappointed by the fact that the free T-shirts disappeared within ten minutes and by the lines that stretched across the park, making it difficult to get some of the advertised free food.

“It’s a really good concept, but the lines are very long,” College freshman Arnav Shah.

“All the events are individually really fun, but [Skimmerfest] feels disjointed,” College freshman Michael Samuelson agreed.

But despite the drawbacks, Skimmerfest was a fun evening and the atmosphere was upbeat. “People had a good time and we’re all really happy about it,” Bart said.

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