Matt Murphy, Campus Carrier Deputy News Editor

Berry will be continuing its annual Marthapalooza tradition this year. The preparations for the annual event are in the making, and it will occur on Oct. 5.

Marthapalooza has not always been a custom here at Berry. Cecily Crow, Director of Student Activities, said a social gathering used to be held off-campus.

“There was a long standing non-Berry event affiliated with Mountain Day called the field party,” Crow said. “It created an environment where maybe unsafe choices were made related to alcohol.”

Because of the nature of the field party, the desire to create an alternative event arose.

“In the early 2000s, we saw a need to provide an event that gave students an alternative from going to the field party,” Crow said. “We planned it specifically on Saturday night, late night.”

Thus, Marthapalooza was born. In 2005, the first Marthapalooza was held after a month of planning, and about 800 students attended. The number of students in attendance has only grown since then. In recent years, the number in attendance has been between 2,000 and 2,500 people.

After a period of time, Marthapalooza overshadowed the once popular field party.

“Eventually, the field party no longer existed,” Crow said.

The budget for Marthapalooza has also grown since its beginnings. It is a component of the Student Activities Office. This year’s budget was approximately $50,000. Approximately 70 percent of that budget goes towards the carnival rides themselves.

Marthapalooza has now become almost completely run by students. An entire committee is dedicated to the planning of the event.

The Marthapalooza committee, the student-run committee that plans for Marthapalooza, is in charge of many important aspects of the carnival, such as the theme.

“The committee brainstorms in spring semester,” Crow said. “They spend a meeting throwing out all ideas, and then they just narrow it down by vote.”

The Marthapalooza committee is split into sub-committees, one of which is the volunteer committee. Sophomore Ree Palmer, a member of the volunteer committee, said her committee was in charge of several aspects of the event.

“We are in charge of recruiting volunteers for the event for all of our different set up shifts and shifts during the event,” Palmer said. “We also manage clean-up shifts.”

The volunteer committee recruits students to man certain aspects of the event such as set-up.

“They [volunteers] help us set up on Thursday and Friday,” Palmer said. “During the event, they will help us check wristbands coming in the event. They will also work the lines.”

In addition, student volunteers also help work with concessions, the family hour, and clean up.

The event this year will have several new additions, some of which are in line with this year’s pirate theme.

“This year we have the Flying Dutchmen [carnival ride], which is like a pirate ship,” Crow said.

Laser tag and a caricature artist are also supposed to be new attractions at this year’s event.

Crow said that Marthapalooza is an important event that all Berry students should experience.

“Marthapalooza is probably the one event that almost every Berry student experiences and is usually a favorite memory as seniors graduate, so don’t miss out on it if you’ve never been,” Crow said.