Have you heard of Lollapalooza? How about Bonnarroo?
These two things have two things in common. They are both music festivals and both have stupid-sounding names.
The first one, Lollapalooza, started in 1991 and was probably one of the most influential festivals for alternative music in that time period. Was it because Perry Farrel of Jane's Addiction named it after a gag from a "Three Stooges" episode? No. No one thought twice about a music festival named "Lollapalooza" because the bands on the bill were relevant and showed promise.
So, the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) went from one extreme to the other in the handling of this festival -- and I'm of course referring to the shift in mentality from, "Hey bro, wanna throw a music festival, like, right before finals week? It would be killer, we could get free Rita's and that white rapper from West Chester," to, "All in favor of 'Last Call,' say aye." -- is currently boggling my mind. So there have been articles, tweets and blog posts dedicated specifically to the naming of a music festival, and they're still 0-for-1. And UPUA is fostering this meaningless discussion.
On Tuesday night, about an hour after "Lost," Gavin Kierans (@StudentBodyPrez) tweeted that the name, "Last Call," was vetoed by UPUA -- "vetoed" makes it sound so official -- and that, gasp!, it would be left up to the students.
Should naming a festival be this elaborate? Nope. Not really. You could name this festival Purple Monkey Dishwasher-a-looza and if there were halfway decent bands there that 1. didn't suck and 2. didn't suck, then I would happily be there wearing a T-shirt with the name "Purple-Monkey-Dishwasher-a-looza" on it.
So, "Hey," I thought to myself, " 'Lost' is over, I've got nothing to do, let's go vote on a name." I was one credit shy of technically being a senior last semester, so this would be my way of voting for a senior class gift, in some weird lazy-journalism-major kind of way.
Then I took a look at these choices: Apogee, Cadence, Finale, Saraswati ... The Last Stop?
Really?
UPUA got so worn out after four names that it used the name of an old Dave Matthews Band song as a name idea? Outstanding.
You know what though? Who cares about the name? Sure, "Last Call" reminded everyone of "Last Call with Carson Daly" and it has some drinking connotation, but as long as it isn't Asher Roth or The Spill Canvas headlining then I don't care. Besides, I doubt an indirect reference to drinking is going to the be the final thing that makes everybody say, "See? I knew Penn State only cared about drinking!" That already happened with this year's State Patty's.
So far, there has been a lot of talk about what the name of this festival should be. Digging through Collegian back issues, I found a quote from Mike Wallace about a possible name change on Feb. 2 of this year.
"I was joking when I first said it -- not about the name, but the entire idea. It just seemed too impossible to pull off," Wallace said of Wallypalooza. "It ended up happening and becoming a successful event. I don't see why you would change a good thing."
You know what? I agree. I mean, Asher Roth might not be my or any other self-respecting music fan's idea of, uh, "listenable," but UPUA was successful in getting another music festival at Penn State. This school is so saturated with football for an entire semester that it's pretty wonderful our summers have an Arts Fest and our springs have two music festivals -- mediocre they may be, but at least we're trying.
My advice? Drop the name drama. Keep it as Wallypalooza. Sure, it's just the name of our student president's buddy with "alooza" attached to it, but if you bring the talent, they will come. Bring bands that college students want to see, not high schoolers.
Movin' On has yet to embrace this concept -- though, big ups for Raekwon -- but at least Wallypalooza had the right idea. They booked a guy whose single was, "I Love College."
A name is just a name. Just like "rock" and "jazz" are just genre names, Lollapalooza and Bonnarroo are just festival names, and when people check their lineups every summer, it's not because they really like the name ... it's the bands and the entertainment they're focusing on.
"Last Call with Wallypalooza." There, the name situation is fixed. If you want students to vote, make it for something that matters, like, I don't know. Bands?
