The Bryce Jordan Center radiates contagious energy for 46 consecutive hours every February during THON. The dance marathon attracts over 15,000 student volunteers, 700 of which are dancers who are required to stay on their feet for the entire weekend. So, what is it that keeps the dancers alive and pumped up all weekend long? Music, of course!
THON is going a new direction this year with an entirely student-run DJ. The music duties are being taken over by THON’s Entertainment Committee. No worries though, this isn’t their first rodeo. This year alone, Entertainment has DJed over 45 THON events including the THON 5K, 100 Days ‘til THON Celebration, and Family Carnival.
Jake Bramande, Entertainment Director, assured Valley that his team was more than prepared for THON. His team, consisting of 8 DJs (2 DJ Coordinators and 6 DJs), is perfectly synced up with the Timeline Coordinator, who’s responsible for planning out the course of the weekend, ensuring “everyone is on the same page.”
Bramande, along with several thousand others, has been looking forward to this amazing weekend and making a difference FTK. He said, “Overall I believe this is a huge step for Entertainment and THON for becoming a 100% student run philanthropy, and I know as a committee we are excited to bring the energy and excitement to the BJC this weekend!”
Well, they’ve done just that.
Roughly 15 hours into THON festivities, Valley hit the floor for some dancer music reviews.
Senior, Josh Meltzer, dancing for Sigma Chi gave the DJ five stars. He said, “[the music] is keeping me thoroughly entertained and wide awake.”
Tanner Orndorff, a sophomore Rules and Regulations committee member, said, “It’s been perfect, the DJ mixes it up real well.”
Finally, we talked to long time friends Julianne Pekny, a senior independent dancer, and Lindsay Barbour, a senior dancing for her business fraternity. Pekny said, “It’s a great mix of old and new songs.” Barbour agreed and said, “They’ve done a really good job of not playing repeats, which is hard to do. I even like when they play the slower ballades, like Drops of Jupiter, it gets the crowd going which makes it more fun on the floor.”
It’s official: the Entertainment Committee DJ is a hit. In the words of Pekny and Barbour, “Student DJs are awesome!”
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