Flagler Palooza rocks small local crowd

By Alyssa Murfey | gargoyle@flagler.edu
Photos by Phillip C. Sunkel IV

Flagler Palooza rocked the west lawn this weekend, offering music and entertainment for the campus and the community. Rachel Green, director of Flagler College Residence Life, planned the event with Flagler College students.

“We just hear students talking all the time about the great concerts and events at other schools and we wanted to do something for the end of the year,” Green said.

Green said the event lasted from morning to night with a stage blasting live music from the bands Amy Hendrickson and the Prime Directive, One Hit Wonder, Feral Swine Experiment, Love Chunk, Wobbly Toms, Waiting on Brian and Grandpa’s Cough Medicine. Local vendors set up booths around the west lawn, offering food, a rock climbing wall, merchandise and more.

Flagler College student Shelby Ptacek, 19, said she was at the event all day and she would go back next year.

“The music was good, I love folk music and banjos and that’s what was on earlier,” she said.

However, Ptacek also said she anticipated a larger crowd.

“I expected more people to be here,” she said. “I think the vendors expected a larger turnout.”

Bastien Santofimia, 12, whose father owns Santo Burrito, agrees. He said he was disappointed Flagler Palooza did not draw a stronger crowd.

“Business has not been what we expected it to be,” he said. “The attendance wasn’t high. We could count the people we saw.”

Santo Burrito employee Seth Teston, 21, said Flagler Palooza vendors, including Santo Burrito, paid a $50 vendor fee. He said that they did not get their money’s worth.

However, Santofimia said he believes they earned the $50 in promotion.

“It’s mainly for promotion, not for sales,” he said.

Green said because this is Flagler Palooza’s first year, the crowd was sparse.

“It would have been nice to have a larger turnout, but this is the first year,” she said. “Our volunteers have been fantastic and the sponsors have been great.”

Flagler College Student TJ Yuelling, 20, helped Green plan the event. He said Bozard Ford and Eclipse Studios were the two main sponsors for the event. He faced challenges, he said.

“Since we have never done this before, it was more of just how to go about getting sponsorships and vendors to come out,” he said, “and also how to make a contract with a band and little things like shutting down Sevilla Street.

We didn’t realize [shutting down Sevilla Street] was going to be such a big deal.”

Despite a quiet turnout, Amy Hendrickson, 28, said her band, Amy Hendrickson and the Prime Directive, has three Flagler College Alumni and they enjoyed playing in the event.

“I think Flagler students need to cause more of a ruckus,” Hendrickson said. “It’s good to blow off some steam and see them get a little crazy.”

Hendrickson also said she had fun serenading a Flagler College student with an Alanis Morissette song.

“Everyone coming up to the stage on the last song made me really happy,” she said.

For Green, a slow first year means even bigger plans for the future.

“We absolutely want to make it a yearly event,” she said. “[We want to] continue to grow and hopefully bring in a national band.”