An annual College-in-the-Woods tradition is set to draw campus into the residential community for a festival that includes outdoor concerts, arts and crafts activities, and free food this Friday.
Woodstock, CIW’s annual spring event (scheduled from 4 to 11:30 p.m. in the community’s courtyard) will feature new activities like boxing, a flea market and a dunk tank where students will have the opportunity to dunk various dorm officers, along with anyone else willing to participate.
The festival, in keeping with past years, will include outdoor performances by bands and a cappella groups, as well as activities such as tie-dying, jousting and an inflatable castle. Free hamburgers and hot dogs will be provided by the CIW Dining Hall staff, while the CIW e-board will provide popcorn, cotton candy and snow cones.
Handmade crafts and newly designed Woodstock T-shirts will also be on sale at the event, as every year students are invited to draw different designs for T-shirts and to vote on their favorites. This year, the top two designs were chosen to be produced. Students will also have the opportunity to tie-dye the shirts they buy.
The flea market will give students an opportunity to exchange possessions such as textbooks or electronics with each other.
Activities at Woodstock will also be designed to be eco-friendly, said Jen Mora, the CIW e-board president.
‘We will have a table where you can design a canvas tote; this is supposed to promote conservation,’ Mora said. ‘It’s like a tote you can take to a market.’
Several bands are scheduled to play this year, including Be Cool, Cowboy, Party Edition, Nexus, The Quota and The Stallions. A cappella groups, including Kaskeset, the Vibrations and the Binghamtonics, will also perform.
‘A lot of people are excited to see the groups perform. Some of the bands like Be Cool, Cowboy and Party Edition also performed at WoodsJam last semester and we had requests from students to bring them back,’ said Kristina Brandt, CIW’s co-social vice president.
Woodstock is also the time when CIW residents paint the windows between the dining hall and Tuscarora building. Painting these windows is another long-standing CIW tradition, and this year’s theme will be old Nickelodeon shows.
‘We are very proud of this display since the tours going into CIW pass under these windows all the time,’ Brandt said. ‘Some of the tour guides have commented that prospective students and parents really like the windows and that it makes a good impression about CIW.’