Students get Funky at Up All Night

The Bubble was swinging to the disco music of the 1970s at this year’s Up All Night, which took place on February 27 from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m.

The annual event put on by Campus Recreation featured a super funk roller disco theme.  At the door, students were greeted by a bubble machine and were given disco ball necklaces. 

According to Doug Carty, director of campus recreation, the event had a lot to offer students for a Saturday night in February. “February is always an interesting time of year where it is cold out and there is not a lot going on. So, we try to give students something fun to do on a Saturday night.”

Keeping with the theme of roller disco, students could borrow roller skates to skate around the track, dance on a light up dance floor under a disco ball, or make tie dyed t-shirts. There was also a mechanical bull, laser tag, an oxygen bar, karaoke, a moon bounce, and samples of Rock Star energy drinks.

Club tables were fundraising at the event, and students could pay as little as $1 to participate in a wide range of activities. Brothers Reaching Out held a raffle for artwork created by senior Jon Gordon. Graphic Design Club put guests faces’ into classic ‘70s scenes like “Saturday Night Fever” and “That’s ‘70s Show.” For the fifth year, Anthropology Club had their Wedding Chapel. This year to stay with the ‘70s, students could get married by Shaggy and then driven around in the Love Machine. 

The Fire Department returned with Jail-N-Bail where students could pay $1 for every five minutes they wanted their friends in jail. The friend could either wait the time or pay double to get out. First Captain Tim Quinn was happy with the turn out of people in jail as well as the amount of people at Up All Night. “It’s nice to see a diverse group of students out having fun at the same event,” said Quinn. 

The men’s rugby team had students pay $5 to see members of the team have their chest hair waxed off. Coach Corey Lawson had an entire portion of his chest hair waxed off for $20. “The $20 it raised for the men’s rugby team was totally worth it. I’m just waiting to see how long it takes for the red mark to go away,” said Lawson while laughing and rubbing his chest.

The idea for Up All Night came along years ago when students realized there needed to be a substitute to weekend drinking. “The original intent for Up All Night was to be substance free alternative to a traditional weekend party scene. We provide a lot of fun opportunities for students so they really have a choice when they are going out,” said Carty.

Attendees of the event were amazed at how many things they could do at one event.  “The jail is popular, the Mac and Cheese is awesome and the waxing is so funny,” said sophomore Ari McLean. Many students were excited to see this event take place because it wasn’t a typical Saturday night.

Student Coordinator of Adventure Recreation Chelsea Ketchen said, “It is important to have events like Up All Night to break out of the normal weekends on campus. We need to give the students something to look forward to and give them memories that they'll cherish for the rest of their nights.”