Dillo Day is a staple of the Northwestern experience.
Freshmen look forward to it before they even arrive on campus. Upperclassmen reminisce and make plans to improve on previous Dillo Days. Even with this intense popularity, though, there are a lot of students who don’t know about Mayfest.
“The most visible things are the artists, the vendors and the security,” said Jen Horne, a Weinberg junior. “I think most students underestimate the amount of planning that goes into Dillo Day, though.”
Weinberg freshman Rae Shih is still unsure of what to expect on Dillo Day 2007.
“I don’t know what it entails. It’s kind of nebulous,” says Shih. “I guess it’s a lot of promotions and marketing. You have to get performers and reserve buildings.”
In reality, the planning for Mayfest and Dillo Day begins as soon as students arrive on campus. The Mayfest committee’s seven subcommittees (Finance, Corporate, Promotion, Special Events, Concerts, Production and the Underground Armadillo, a newspaper published by students the week of the event) begin their planning at different times depending on the tasks they need to accomplish.
“If you are doing Production, there are certain things like permits and things that you have to get done with right away,” said Andrea Hart, a Medill sophomore and one of the Mayfest committee’s co-chairs. “If you’re on Promotions, you don’t know if you have a theme yet, or even the Underground Armadillo, [which] comes out the week of Dillo Day, so that’s obviously not something you have to get started on in January.”
The most highly-anticipated Mayfest events are the Dillo Day performances. Rumors start to swirl around campus as early as Fall Quarter, though most of the day’s performers are not confirmed until the end of April.
Because of contractual obligations, Hart and her co-chair, Communication junior Hillary Robbie, couldn’t reveal who they had booked so far, but they did offer some insight about their timeframe when choosing Dillo Day performers.
“This year we started really early, but typically it’s more of a Winter Quarter activity,” said Robbie. “We wanted to be able to predict who would be big, and I think we did a decent job.”
Although Dillo Day weekend festivities don’t kick off for another two weeks, Mayfest events are already in full swing. The group has scheduled ’80s-themed trivia nights every Monday at Hundo and an ’80s a cappella concert featuring nine campus groups. The annual Battle of the Bands is on Thursday and Friday, and a dodgeball tournament was held in early April to spark interest and awareness of Mayfest.
“In previous years [events] are usually only in the month of May, but we’ve started earlier this year,” Hart said. “It’s a way to hype up Dillo Day, which isn’t that hard to do, but also to help raise money and promote awareness.”
Money is a major concern for such a large event. Contrary to what many students believe, the most widely visible Mayfest staples, such as bands and security, aren’t allotted the majority of funding. In fact, it’s the extra necessities that take the biggest chunk out of the Mayfest budget.
“Production costs are extremely high,” Robbie said. “We spend over $40,000 on staging and lights, and food for the green rooms that the artists want, and towels, and golf carts, and walkie-talkies. Those kinds of expenses add up.”
Even with all this hard work and time spent, some students don’t plan to take full advantage of all the events Mayfest has planned.
“[Students] don’t care about planning as long as they can get drunk and go crazy that day,” Shih said.
That’s one thing that the Mayfest committee and the NU administration is trying to avoid. This year, they hope to have quality bands perform throughout the entire day to deter students from going back to apartments or dorms, where dangerous activities often occur.
“The whole goal is to keep people on the field watching the bands and keep them in between bands. Obviously there’s a lot of concern with drinking alcohol and these emergencies, and those more frequently happen when people aren’t on the Lakefill,” said Hart.
But alcohol-related issues aren’t the most difficult problem facing the Mayfest committee. Robbie and Hart agree that one of the hardest aspects of planning this event is the uncertainty in dealing with companies, performers and the Evanston community.
“Even if you start early, there’s things that you never know are going to happen,” Hart said. “Last year we booked an act and everything seemed fine, then three days before Dillo Day they were basically dropped and we had to turn around and get another act booked. That was something that had never happened before, but you want to be prepared for everything.”
But Robbie sees benefits in these obstacles.
“Everything that goes wrong is just a better preparation for next year,” says Robbie.
While the committee members generally enjoy all the rewards and fun that planning Mayfest brings, there are some downsides, especially when students are dissatisfied with the final product.
“When people come up to us and say every single band we’ve already thought of, but it just couldn’t work out, it’s sad because I wanted to get those bands for them, and it’s not our fault,” said Robbie. “It’s kind of a hard game to play when you’re trying to please an entire campus of people who in a lot of ways just want a name that they know and songs that they recognize, but we just can’t do it for them. We just don’t have the means.”
With performers such as Cake and Lupe Fiasco tentatively scheduled, buzz is positive for this year’s Dillo Day. And even though students are looking forward to the event, Robbie points out that committee members are probably anticipating it more.
“You can do all those things on any day of the year. But to get to look back and have people like what you did is so cool,” says Robbie. “Dillo Day is really special.”