Summer concert at MMC a rave to remember

Thousands of young people – among them plenty from FIU – this past weekend crowded onto a campus parking lot transformed into the hottest music venue in Miami.

For two days, Panthers and others from the community gathered for a music festival that featured electronic, rap and hip-hop artists strutting their stuff on a stage bathed in lights.

With sound blasting and water canon firing, the party to end all parties had attendees joyously dancing – some in a mosh pit – and snapping selfies. A few even exchanged the “peace, love, unity, respect,” or PLUR, friendship bracelets popular at Taylor Swift shows and that strangers offer one another as a way to connect.

“It felt like an actual high-end concert,” said junior biology major Shreeya Gudipati, who went with a friend and ran into others while there. She was one of a thousand FIU students who received free entry as part of the university’s partnership with organizers.

“It felt like something I would honestly pay for [in the future],” she added of performances by folks such as Friday headliner Sheck Wes, whom she had not heard of prior to attending. It was female rapper Nostalgix that landed highest on Gudapati’s list of new favorites: “I thought she was so good.”

In between acts, music lovers had access to a “recharging” area that offered free water and a variety of food trucks – milkshakes with churros reportedly sold like hotcakes – along with the chance to engage in every rave goer’s favorite game: cornhole

“It was perfect,” senior Fabiana Rubio said. “Getting to see all the students having the best time, it was like ‘wow.’”

The business marketing major hung out as one of the university’s designated social media “creators.” In that role, she captured video of peers rocking out. “It was amazing,” Rubio said. “I got to see the students go crazy.”

With the summer semester about to end, in just two weeks, the entertainment made for an ideal last campus experience before the break, said Misha Kaye, who showed up on both days of the festival. The sophomore heads home to upstate New York for a visit with family at the end of the month and now has another cool memory to cap off a great year at FIU.

“It was the most fun I’ve had in a while,” the electrical engineering major said. “It got me in a good mood.” With two projects, multiple essays and mid-terms bogging him down, he added that the promise of an over-the-top good time motivated him to complete as much schoolwork as possible before heading outside, steps from his dorm, to party. “It was stress-relieving,” he said. “I feel refreshed.”