FallFest, the University’s primary welcome event for freshmen, has been cancelled due to a chance of rain, said Don Luse, director of the Carolina Union.
Luse said the decision was based on safety concerns regarding the electrical equipment.
“We have electrical power that has to be run, so for the safety of the people doing this setup and for participants we have to be really careful about that,” he said. “You don’t want people working with electricity in the rain.”
In the 16 years the event has been held, this is just the second time it has been cancelled, Luse said.
Luse said vendors will be in the Pit Monday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to pass out the merchandise they were going to give away Sunday night. He said Sunday afternoon that officials were in the process of distributing the perishable food and planned on giving a lot of it away at the New Student Convocation Sunday night.
Organizers were able to cancel the inflatables and some labor costs, but it’s still too soon to tell how much money they’ll be able to save. Last year’s FallFest cost $54,000, he said.
More plans are being made to provide student organizations with opportunities to reach out to new students, Luse said.
“We want to meet on Tuesday morning to try to see what we might be able to do in terms of providing tables out in the plaza area or in the Great Hall to make up for the lost time in FallFest,” Luse said.
“It won’t be the same, there’s no doubt about that, and that’s unfortunate.”
But Luse said cancelling the event was unavoidable.
“We waited until we thought it was the last minute to make the decision,” he said. “We don’t do this unless we feel like we just have to.”
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