Kiley Wellendorf | Senior Feature Writer

On Sunday, October 4, Buena Vista University (BVU) kicked off the 2016 Homecoming celebration with a Paint Rave located on campus.

The Paint Rave was invited to its second visit on campus by the Student Activities Board (SAB) and served as a way to get students excited for the week-long celebration.

Homecoming VP, Senior Haley Stevens describes the decision to put the Paint Rave at the start of the week in contrast to its previous Friday-night debut.

“We don’t normally do large events on Sundays, so this is something we had never tried before,” Stevens explains. “We [SAB Board] then chose to step out of our comfort zones a little bit and try something new with an event that campus has already seen before. In the end, we chose the day that we thought we show the best attendance from our student body.”

This year, the Alumni Association Board hired well-known cover artist Johnny Holm Band to perform after Friday’s coronation for Homecoming. While this was an obstacle for SAB at first, Stevens believed the decision to move the Paint Rave from it’s previous Friday spot to Sunday was a good call.

“I thought the turn out was fantastic,” Stevens said. “I have to hand it to the promotions committee within SAB – they were the true masterminds when it came to getting people to this event.”

Much like Stevens, seniors Dani Coyne and Alexis Beenken enjoyed the new date.

“I think having the Paint Rave on Sunday night was a great way to kick off homecoming week,” Beenken said. “My favorite part about the Paint Rave was seeing everyone come together to listen to some good music.”

Coyne feels the Sunday night date might have not allowed some students with tests in the morning to go, but she felt the event was successful.

“My favorite part of the Paint Rave was probably having the chance to be up front and actually interact with the DJ’s,” Coyne said. “They were all super interactive with us, and it was awesome how Joe and Josh got to DJ at the end too.”

Much like the Paint Rave, SAB will continue to host specific events for each day of the week.

“I hope students got a slight glimpse about what SAB is all about, and I also hope that they found it to be a great way to kick off our Homecoming week celebration,” Stevens said.

“I also hope that they did not have any trouble getting paint out of their hair.”

Photos by Kiley Wellendorf
Video produced by Justice Gage