Hello. D-Day is meant to be a community growing exercise. Denison closes the dining halls, forcing hungry students to munch on cook-out food and watch student performers. Flyers are spread from East to West Quad, encouraging students to meander their way down to Mitchell and enjoy the soothing sounds of R.City’s caribbean pop music followed by Waka Flocka’s high energy rap ballads. So why is it that what is meant for community building sometimes results in altercations and conflict?
There are a few possible reasons as to why the concert-goers bring so much intensity that they turn their own friends into foes, or acting out of decent character toward strangers in general. The first is the massive consumption of alcohol before the concert. IGA is a swarm of barely legal students grabbing the closest bottle to the door, forgetting quality and focusing on quantity. People are barely able to stand come Mr. Flame’s moment on stage, and it might not be just from overcrowding.
Another possibility is that people on this campus are just angry, hateful individuals who want nothing but to see the man or woman next to him fall down and get a final boot stomp to the face. We thoroughly doubt that, but there are a lot of driven individuals on this campus who may find that one fewer student in their stats class means one fewer person they have to beat out for valedictorian.
What may be going on at D-Day is people do not get to experience live music enough on this campus, and their deprivation has led to a pent-up desire to rage face that can only be satisfied through high-energy, high anger dancing/fighting. Maybe if Denison had more concerts, then people would be less inclined to get drunk enough to make up for an entire year of no concerts. Let’s spread the wealth.
Not to blame Denison entirely for the lack of exposure, we all know it is a given that we’re bound to brush up against or bump into another concert-goer. Concert etiquette is a thing. Let’s say there’s a scale, one to ten, called Unacceptable Shoving at Concerts. If you know yours is a solid seven or above, check yourself.
Realize you are not the only one here to have a good time. And, in having that good time, being belligerent doesn’t have to fall into that category (along with making out with your significant other…). Saying excuse me is fine; being at a concert does not inhibit you from doing so. Goodbye.