As a sophomore at Quinnipiac University, Zacahary Iwatsuki has never been to a Fall Fest.
With COVID-19 guidelines forcing the concert to be cancelled in 2020, he never got the opportunity to experience the on-campus tradition. Now, he is the mainstage chair for the Student Programming Board (SPB), and he has made a big influence on planning the event’s comeback.
“That’s one of the reasons why I [went for] the position [of mainstage chair],” Iwatsuki said. “Even though I haven’t experienced Fall Fest, I brought a new eye to it. I could put a new touch to it … I’m kind of a people pleaser so making sure that I make an event and I can see the smiles on people’s faces is another reason why I joined SPB in general.”
Iwatsuki wasn’t alone in the endeavor. He also had SPB President Shannon Flaherty and the executive board for WQAQ, the on-campus radio station, to help him. The group has been planning Fall Fest 2021 since the early summer with the goal to make it better than previous years.
The event previously featured food trucks, a donut wall and an electric pumpkin for concert-goers to ride. While some of the same activities will be returning, Jack Main, general manager of WQAQ and a senior journalism major, insists that Fall Fest 2021 will outdo what the Quinnipiac community has seen in the past.
“I think it’s going to kick [Fall Fest] 2019’s ass,” Main said. “I say that with my chest. I think this is going to be one of the most successful events that we’ve ever put on in the history of WQAQ.”
The biggest decision the team had to make was choosing the artists. After budgeting and negotiations, they chose Grayson DeWolfe as an opener with pop artists Trevor Daniel and Rebecca Black as headliners.
“When we knew that we could do Fall Fest … outside on the Quad with no masks, we realized this was going to be the first huge, large-scale event that was happening on our campus [since the pandemic],” Flaherty said. “So we wanted to steer it towards artists that people knew, especially because two years ago we had just local cover bands and it didn’t go over great.”
Flaherty said that SPB has wanted DeWolfe to come to campus for a while.
“We have always wanted to have him come,” Flaherty said. “He’s just a great cover artist.”
Trevor Daniel first rose to fame in 2019, when his 2018 song, “Falling,” went viral on TikTok. Since then, he has released collaborations with artists such as Selena Gomez, Julia Michaels and Blackbear, who has also performed at Quinnipiac.
Black is best known for her song, “Friday,” which went viral on YouTube in 2011, with over 150 million views. However, the flood of negative reviews did not stop Black from producing music as she grew older. Her most recent EP, “Rebecca Black Was Here,” was released in June 2021.
“I’m really excited to see the artists,” Main said. “If you had told me 12 years ago that I would get to hang out with Rebecca Black for a Saturday, I would have been like, ‘you’re lying.’”
Main said there will be lots to do besides watching the artists.
“We have so many cool things that are going to be going on: food trucks, events and contests, things like that and then of course the live music,” Main said. “It really doesn’t get much better than that.”
Fall Fest 2021 will be happening on the Quad on Saturday, Oct. 23 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
“Just come down, have fun,” Main said. “It’s literally free of charge. You can stumble onto the Quad and have an epic day and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t want to do that.”