With the organization, planning and promotion of the Akaa Project team at Wooster, another Under the Stadium Rave was a full success this past Saturday, April 13 at the College of Wooster. Thank you to all our volunteers, organizers and especially participants – we raised over $1,000 at this one night event!
Rave Under the Stadium by Erika Kay
It didn’t feel like I was setting up for a real rave until we started spray painting. There were only three of us left setting up, doing the final touches. We had taped up the huge sheets of white paper on the wall, and we just went to town. We kept asking ourselves, what is a rave even supposed to look like? We just went nuts with the graffiti and when we finished, we stepped back and pulled away the ladders, and then we laughed, “Now this place is ready for a rave.”
When we got there before the rave opened at eleven it was just Lauren Grimanis and Elizabeth Plumley dancing around and talking to DJ Blacksheep (Brandon Pool). The large group of girls with whom I arrived promptly started laughing and dancing to the sweet beats DJ Blacksheep orchestrated through the rented speakers we had spent all day setting up. But really, we couldn’t help but love all of our favorite songs remixed together at the highest of decibels and rebounding off of the concrete walls under the stadium. As us girls danced in a circle, taking turns showing off our modest dance moves, the crowd slowly started filtering in.
It was one of those things where you don’t realize how successful the party is until it’s absolutely packed. I remember finding out the next day that we had run out of wristbands at the door as early as 12:30 AM! There had never been so many people under the stadium. I don’t think I felt the weight of how huge the crowd really was until the music shut off randomly in the height of the rave. I dove under the table and started searching for the cause of the shutdown. While I was doing this, the crowd grew restless, and in typical fashion, they began chanting. And as the power of the chant reverberated through my body, I looked up from the stage and saw the sea of people in its entirety for the first time all night. Luckily only seconds later the culprit extension chord was located and all was right in the rave again.
There’s something pretty incredible in knowing that you’re the source of fun for a couple hundred people. Somehow The Akaa Project has found its niche at The College of Wooster and the repeated success of our events only encourages us to continue. I can’t begin to describe the feeling of seeing all of our hard work here in the U.S. translated into the lives of the Asiafo Amanfro community. But I also can’t begin to explain how great it feels to simultaneously be the source of fun and entertainment for my peers while also fundraising for the village I love. The combination of the two is something you just can’t beat.
Have pictures from Saturday night? Wanna see if you’re in any pictures? Visit the Akaa Project at Wooster facebook page.
Loved our music? Check out our in-house Akaa Project DJ – DJ Blacksheep: http://m.soundcloud.com/bl-ck-h33p/tracks
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