Madipalooza from a Feminist Perspective

So if you don’t attend James Madison University you probably don’t know what Madipalooza is. To give you a  little background I am going to tell you how Madipalooza started. Madipalooza started the Spring of 2011, many people think that it was created in place of what JMU used to hold which was called Spring Fest. Spring Fest used to happened at JMU every Spring and it basically was a huge day drink for college students, however Spring of 2010 things got out of control and to say the least it does not happen anymore.

So back to Madipalooza, it is an all day event where JMU students and there friends, family and some citizens from Harrisonburg can come out and enjoy the festivities. This year was my first year going to Madipalooza and I was surprised at what I saw. I remember people telling me about Madipalooza in past and it just never seemed to be of much interest to me, but this year I decided to go because it was a part of Greek Week this year and a bunch of my sorority sisters were going together as well.

At the event they had all different types of attractions and events which were open for everyone. One of the coolest things that I liked and did was the mechanical bull and actually very surprisingly a lot of the people riding the bull were women. It actually seemed that most of the people participating in the more physical activities were women such as the rock wall, obstacle courses and the mechanical bull. Besides the physical activities they had games from which you could win free prizes some of which consisted of backpacks, tumblers and sunglasses. Also, they had air brush tattooes which I actually knew the person who was giving the tattoos and he had close to 800 to 1000 people that he gave air brush tattoos. He said that there were not only girls who were getting the tattoos, but also men wanted them. A little boy went up to him and was so happy to get it and that it made his day.

Lastly, they had a concert where bands played throughout the day. Their main act was Shwayze, which attracted the most people and there were also several other bands. One of the bands who was at the end of the concert and I was very surprised the music that they were playing. The music that they were playing was not appropriate for the occasion since a lot of the JMU students brought their little brothers and sisters from the BIg Brother Big Sister Program and the music was not suitable for that age group.

I would say overall though that Madipalooza was fun, exciting and an event I will reeember looking back at my JMU career. I highly recommend going to it next year if you have never been. I promise you wont be sorry.