The REC provided students with many games, including a life-size jenga game. 
The Lion's Roar / Elizabeth Brown

Aside from games and free food, four bands played including The Chee-Weez,
The Gillis Silo (top, right), Impaired Faculties and Jonathan Koeppel.
Students embraced the festival feeling of the day and sat out in the grass
and danced as the bands performed. 
The Lion's Roar / Kelli Meynard

Crawfish, live bands, inflatables and games, what more could students ask for on a beautiful day? REC Fest 2016 was rescheduled due to bad weather, but the sun shined bright the following week.

On Wednesday, May 4 REC Fest was held from 2 to 10 p.m. outside the Pennington Center. Free crawfish, jambalaya, Monster energy drinks and New Orleans Roast iced tea and coffee was provided. 

“REC Fest is a fun environment for family and friends to get together to enjoy good music and good food,” said sophomore nursing major and REC staff Savannah Laborde.

There was a wide variety of inflatables and games, from obstacle courses to knocker balls, life sized Jenga, Tic-Tac-Toe and even beanbag toss were also available to play.

Sophomore environmental biology major Michael Angelo Latino worked the knocker ball station and found it fun to watch.

“With the knocker ball, you get three tries with you and somebody else,” said Latino. “You get about 20 feet apart, and you just take off running and see who can knock who down. It’s pretty interesting and fun to watch.”

Some students found REC Fest to be distressing with exams coming up.

“I think the event is fun,” said junior communication major Carnisha Tassin. “The crawfish was really good. The inflatables were fun. The music was nice. It’s just really chill, and it helps take the stress of exams away. You don’t really think about exams when you’re out here.”

Latino also agreed that the crawfish was good and so was the music. 

“The music has been really good, as well as the crawfish,” said Latino. “They were really big. The bands are really talented and there is a good bit of people here.”

Students were not the only ones who had a good time. The Chee-Weez were having a blast at their mini rock concert.

“We had a great time at Rec Fest,” said bass player from The Chee-Weez Joey Mangiapane. “We play these kind of events at a lot of colleges. Most of the time they sit around and listen and enjoy the band, but last night it turned into a rock show. All the kids were in the front singing all the songs. That makes our job much easier. Hopefully we’ll be back next year.”

Relaxing can be an important thing for students to do before taking a ton of exams and singer Jonathan Koeppel thought this is exactly what students needed.

“I’m extremely grateful for CAB, SGA and The REC for having me perform with my band,” said Koeppel. “I also enjoyed getting to rock out before finals week. It was a great way to de-stress. Definitely an event that stressed out students can use to have fun and relax.”