New plan in place in case of FallFest rain

Not even rain will drown out UNC’s biggest back-to-school event this year.

In the event of inclement weather during this year’s FallFest, a new rain plan in place will ensure the celebration of student groups can still be held.

Lauren Sacks, chairwoman of the FallFest committee, said the event will be moved to Fetzer Hall gyms A and B if the weather is poor.

Sacks said about 20,000 students usually attend FallFest each year. She said safety will be a main priority if the event is moved to the smaller indoor venue.

“The capacity for Fetzer A and B is a lot smaller than 20,000, so we’re working with the Department of Public Safety and the fire marshal to determine how to make sure that we get as many people in there as we can, but that we do it in a safe way,” Sacks said.

“That being said, if it’s a torrential downpour, my guess is that it’s going to limit some people from coming to the event anyway.”

If the event is moved indoors, there will not be room to have student performances or to have inflatables and other games that are usually held outdoors during the event, Sacks said.

But there would be a climbing wall, and many of the scheduled food vendors would be transported to the backup location in the event of rain, she said. A DJ scheduled to play between sets of student performances will provide music at the festival whether it is held inside or outside.

“It’s really difficult to stage an event of this size and scope that’s really based so much on the outdoor nature of the event,” Sacks said. “That being said, what we heard most last year when the event was canceled was that people missed the representation of all the different student organizations.”

Sacks said she wants to ensure that student organizations get as much exposure as possible, and that moving FallFest indoors during the scheduled time is more practical than rescheduling FallFest events once school is in session — which is what administrators did last year after the festival was canceled.

“It will definitely be a smaller version of what FallFest would be, but we’re hopeful that if we can’t get all student organizations that were registered for FallFest there that we will at least have as many as we possibly can in that space,” she said.

Last year, FallFest was canceled due to storms, and some student groups have said their enrollment decreased because of it.

Kiever Hunter, the outreach coordinator for WXYC, said the student-run radio station did not have as many applicants in 2012 as it has had in previous years, and that the cancellation of FallFest likely contributed to the decrease.

“(It) allows for all of the organizations to be presented before the student body in one place and makes finding (a) specific group much, much easier,” he said in an email.

Still, many student groups said they were able to recruit participants with smaller, rescheduled events and their own marketing efforts.

Kelsey Rupp, former editor of the Carolina Review, said she was pleased with the number of new writers who joined last year after reading the journal or seeing advertisements posted on campus.

“We are not an organization whose presence is noticed or felt on UNC’s campus only at FallFest,” Rupp said in an email. “Through our publication we have a continued presence on campus and because of that we get recruits to the Review throughout the year.”

Sacks said if the weather is poor, a decision on whether or not to move the festival inside will be made by early afternoon on the day of the event.