Katie Sisk, Campus Carrier staff reporter
With the completion of the Valhalla athletic stadium, the Shipyard tailgate area will be moving on campus. The new Shipyard will be located on the lawn between the Moon and Laughlin buildings and will play host to many new Berry traditions.
The new Shipyard location has provided the Shipyard Committee the opportunity to make some changes in the set-up of the event. The new tailgating area is bigger than the Barron Stadium parking lot and hopes are high that students will be willing to take control of their own tailgating experience.
“This allows us to really own the spot,” director of student activities Cecily Crow said. “Before we were very limited in space, limited in time there. We hope students will bring their tents and chairs and blankets and food and just come have a really good social time with other students and enjoy hopefully beautiful fall Saturdays on campus.”
Students will be able to sign up tailgate areas. The school will have a grill for students to use, and KCAB will provide an interactive aspect during each Shipyard.
“There’s going to be more student involvement. This is going to be much more of a student led thing, then, say, Student Activities or KCAB,” said Brent Dotson, a junior and member of the Shipyard Committee. “We’re putting it in the hands of the students so that they can make the Shipyard something that’s theirs.”
Bringing the Shipyard onto campus has opened up further opportunities to bring together tailgating and campus culture.
“I think there will be new traditions that will inevitably begin by being on campus and really having an area that we attribute to our Shipyard on campus,” said Maria Santos, a senior on the Shipyard Committee.
One of these new traditions is the Viking Walk.
Roughly an hour and a half before each game, the football team will walk from Richards Gym to Valhalla through the Shipyard.
“This will be an opportunity for students and other fans to be there to encourage the team and cheer them on,” said Crow.
The first Shipyard will be before the game against LaGrange College on Sept. 12. There will be local food trucks, games, prizes and free giveaways, and Aramark will be catering dinner at the Shipyard instead of in the Dining Hall.
The Shipyard will be an opportunity to get more students involved in tailgating at Berry.
“Having gone to bigger schools for their tailgating experience that’s one of the things that I thought that Berry was lacking,” Dotson said. “Now that we have something like that I’m excited to see where this will go and what the student body will do with it.”
Students will be able to make tailgating their own with the Shipyard’s new set-up and turn it into a new and exciting way to promote Viking spirit.
For more information on the Shipyard and Viking football, go to berrygameday.com.