Forty Acres Fest at UT
On April 2, the South Mall of our beloved Forty Acres was used for games, food, music and fun at Forty Acres Fest 2011. This year’s festival included booths from over 150 student organizations. A mechanical bull, dunking booth, giant inflatable Twister and henna tattoos were only a few features of the festival. Her Campus Texas was in the middle of the action selling cupcakes to benefit the Save the Ta-Tas foundation.
The Her Campus table
The Music and Entertainment Committee of the Student Events Center presented Big Boi (one half of Grammy-award winning rap duo Outkast) as this year’s musical headliner. He hit the stage and gave Longhorns and fellow festival attendees some “Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik.”
“I was really happy,” said public relations sophomore Elizabeth Jones. “He did everything I wanted to hear.”Big Boi performed a wide range of material, including Outkast hits from the early 1990s to recent songs that can be found on his latest album Sir Lucious Left Foot…The Son of Chico Dusty. He mentioned that this is his third time in Austin within the last month and how much he loves partying with the people here.
Big Boi performing some “muzik”
Forty Acres Fest is put on by committees organized by the Student Events Center. These committees share various responsibilities to ensure the success of the festival.
“We’re on the organizations committee so we’ve been involved with getting all of the organizations to come, and telling them where they’re going to be during the festival,” said Eden Shapiro, a member of the Organizations committee for Forty Acres Fest and pre-public relations sophomore. “But there’s also publicity and they’re in charge of T-shirts, wristbands and just getting the word out. There are just a lot of different jobs.”
Outside sponsors came together with on-campus student organizations to create a carefree festival environment for those attending. Unity among the different organizations could easily be seen as members supported the booths of their fellow students when they needed a break from working the festival.
“We told the organizations the rules, checked them in, showed them where their table was, and at the end we’re going to check them out,” said Brittany Walker, a member of the Organizations committee for Forty Acres Fest and government senior.
Brittany Walker (L) and Eden Shapiro (R) of the Organizations committee for Forty Acres Fest
It’s clear that student organizations add excitement and personality to Forty Acres Fest. The multitude of diversity showcased a variety of interests, food and music. While I missed last year’s festival (and the legendary Girl Talk performance), I knew better than to let this one go by without looking into it for myself. Needless to say, Forty Acres Fest did not disappoint, and certainly already has everyone excited for next year.
A few more pictures from Forty Acres Fest:
Just one of the many games at Forty Acres Fest.
Henna tattoos were offered at one of the booths!
A glimpse at the mechanical bull at the festival.