Hosted by Student Life, FMU held its annual First Friday festival with record-breaking attendance on Aug. 25 at the Griffin Athletic Complex. 

A tradition of the past few years, First Friday is a celebration of the FMU community hosted on the first Friday of classes. Lining the entrance were tents showcasing student organizations and groups in the FMU community, such as the Student Government Association and FMU’s Greek Life groups. The festival also included a plethora food trucks, games, amusement rides and several live music performances. 

“I really enjoyed looking at the different variety of vendors that First Friday had,” Sophia Hansen, a junior finance major, said. “I also really liked how it gave students the opportunity to come together and meet new people. Overall, it was a really great atmosphere and a really fun event.” 

With this sentiment shared among students, as well as high attendance, the event was deemed a success from students and faculty alike. Large crowds could be seen at just about every activity occurring during the festival. 

Juggling around a great mix of students and faculty at the event was no easy task, yet it was pulled up seamlessly. Although the event ran smoothly, it took a lot of work and coordination behind the scenes to make this event come to fruition.  

“Coordinating this event is a great team effort from our entire campus community,” Christopher Kennedy, vice president of Student Life, said. “Staff from facilities, our electricians, 

our project crew, our grounds keepers and custodians all worked tirelessly all week long in very hot weather to help set up and break down and clean up after the event.”  

Not only did it take almost all the facilities staff on campus to put the event together, but it took from all corners of FMU to pull off the festival – including academic departments and students themselves. 

“Professor Brandon Goff and the music industry students come through year after year to perform on stage as well as provide technical work off stage to support this live event,” Kennedy said. “The office of communications, Student Life staff, Aramark staff, CASA staff and patriot mentors all played roles in helping us have such a successful event. Also, and most importantly, we would not have nearly the brilliant, festive atmosphere to welcome back the campus community to the academic year event without the wonderful participation of all the various student organizations, clubs, Greek fraternities and sororities, as well as several departments, programs and support offices on campus.” 

The first campus-wide community celebration, it goes without saying that the event was quite the process to put on. With that many hands on deck being necessary for making the event a successful, it was sure to be a stressful undertaking. 

Student Life specialist Evelyn Prosser explained how First Friday took months of planning in order to make this event a reality for students, especially when it came to coordinating food trucks and vendors.  

“First Friday is the culmination of several months of work by many different departments on our campus,” Prosser said. “Student Life has been working diligently to contact local vendors, food truck owners, performing artists and many more to provide many great assets to students from here in our community. We are especially thankful to our grounds maintenance and building maintenance teams for their hard work in setting up ‘Tent Row,’ along with all of the chairs, tables, trash cans, lights and so much more. 

Prosser revealed that this year’s First Friday had the highest number of attendees to date, believing this made it their most successful one yet.  

“With over 1,500 participants, two headlining artists – DJ ALWZ SNNY and Hastings – as well as an abundance of food trucks and rides to enjoy, this was the most successful and most attended First Friday to date,” Prosser said. 

Even senior students, who have attended several First Friday festivals, agreed that there was something special and different about this year’s festival. 

“There were definitely more tents and vendors this year compared to my freshman through junior years,” Ariana Prete, senior political science major, said. “Due to COVID, we didn’t really get to have the full freshmen First Friday experience, so it was nice being able to go to a large on campus event.” 

Being such a hit among students, this year’s Frist Friday was truly a team effort, showing that when everybody works together and with proper preparation, a successful large event is still possible even after everyone was stuck inside for quarantine.  

“While myself or student life might have come up with the vision of First Friday, it takes an entire team from our campus community to pull it off,” Kennedy said. “And I would like to personally thank each and every one who contributed to that effort.”