Sunny weather brings students out for CollinsFest

On a balmy Saturday, Collins Living-Learning Center played host to its annual CollinsFest, a day-long event that featured live bands, free food and a chance to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Along with other events around campus that day, CollinsFest was lucky to have the sunny weather. A large crowd gathered outside on the main quad to eat snow cones and cotton candy, enjoy live bands and even jump in a Moonbounce.

The coordinators of the event also made a large ice cream sundae.

Junior Jez Senden said she believes CollinsFest is a great way to reconnect with people and relax before Little 500 and finals. Senden was previously a resident of Collins but moved out last semester.

“It’s great to hang out with people who’ve left Collins, people you’ve lost touch with,” she said.

Senden was a body painter at CollinsFest. She gave free temporary tattoos, just another fun activity students could enjoy.

“We had body painting at CollinsFest in the past, but I have never been assigned to it until this year,” she said.

CollinsFest was also a great place to promote a cause. Collins resident and freshman Rebecca Frank set up a table for the Bloomington Animal Shelter to help raise awareness.

A few dogs were also brought in from the shelter for students to meet, but Frank said she did not expect anyone to adopt on the spot.

“The dogs are here more to promote the importance of when you decide to get a dog, you adopt from a shelter,” she said.

Frank said she was pleased with the reaction by the students regarding the dogs and thought her first CollinsFest was an awesome experience.

Other activities at CollinsFest included a belly-dancing lesson that was held at 4 p.m. and s’more-making around a bonfire at 8 p.m. During the day, students also played Frisbee and volleyball and tie-dyed T-shirts.

Alex Lahmeyer, freshman and vice president of the Board of Programmers at Collins, helped organize and plan the main events. He said he was happy with how CollinsFest turned out after about three months of planning.

“This was fantastic,” he said. “We had some setbacks, but everything went flawlessly in the end.”

Lahmeyer expressed how pleased he was that non-residents of Collins came to enjoy the event, usually by just walking by and seeing what was happening.

“It wasn’t really advertised around campus, but everyone was invited,” he said.