An estimated 1,850 students crowded the Convocation Mall on Friday night for the largest Fall Kickoff yet, and one of the largest concerts the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) has ever hosted.
“We almost sold out,” said VP Student Life Deepak Sharma. “We’ve never done that before, where we have no hard tickets left, no online tickets left. That’s the largest number we’ve had in history.”
A short time after five o’clock, the show opened with local DJ NuBe, followed by fellow DJ Guiliano Rascan at 5:30 p.m.
For most of the first two acts, there was not a large crowd. However, people started to file in during the third act, Sleepy Tom, a Squamish-born DJ who charmed the audience with a laidback presence and some shocking revelations.
“I was here for one year, but dropped out,” Sleepy Tom shared with the slowly growing crowd. “Good to be back.”
“I feel like I didn’t party enough,” he said of his time at SFU.
Earlier in the day, the SFSS announced that there would be no “beverage garden,” due to “circumstances beyond [their] control.” For some, it was a deterrent, including one anonymous student on Chitter who remarked, “Wait so no beer at fall kickoff? Maybe I’ll pass.”
Sharma explained, “This morning, unforeseen circumstances took place where we weren’t in the position to have a beverage garden.”
He continued, “I was very upset about it, because it adds to the experience of the event — SFU students here are very responsible, it’s not like they’re going to go into the beverage garden and be a bunch of hooligans.”
However, judging by the free-flowing smell of liquor in the air, and a few overly happy dancers, the last minute change did not appear to be much of a hindrance to a good time.
“If you go out there, and you see still, lots of people having the times of their life. We just threw the biggest concert in SFU history, it didn’t hurt the event,” said Sharma.
The fourth act was Botnek, a Montreal-based duo who describe their musical genre as “mp3.” Among the songs they played were “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles),” the Rocky theme song, and the always crowd-pleasing “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which allowed the audience to join in on the “galileos.”
The fifth performer, Big Data, brought a welcome change of pace with a Brooklyn, NY-based electropop and indie rock band. The group kept with the electronic theme of the night, but brought some quality instrumentation and high-powered vocals.
“We always end up doing electronic dance music or DJs, just because they’re a lot more inexpensive than someone like Hedley or Coldplay, or even nearby bands that would add variety to it,” Sharma said.
“It was different than what we’ve done before [. . .] it’s [a] right step towards changing and diversifying our membership, and accommodating all membership, I don’t want to accommodate just one niche or group, I want to accommodate everyone.”
The concert wrapped up with Vancouver-based DJ Felix Cartal. The crowd, at this point, was jumping up and down, playing with the multiple balloons in the air.
However, the night didn’t end with the concert. An after party held at 10 p.m. featured an encore Botnek, marketed as a top secret mystery guest.
