Today on the Parade Ground, Students on Target will host Groovin’ on the Grounds, a free concert and wellness festival, complete with everything from horseshoe contests to rock stars.
Students on Target hosts Groovin’ every spring semester to promote the health and well-being of students, with an emphasis on an alcohol-and drug-free environment — the slogan for the event is “a good time, not wasted.” This year’s Groovin’ will focus on increasing involvement of student organizations and providing fun games and activities to further the wellness message.
The outdoor booths and festivities will begin at noon and go on until 5 p.m. The concert will begin at 3 p.m. and will feature Better than Ezra, Ying Yang Twins and Bonnie McKee, among others. Pop singer Ryan Cabrera will close out Groovin’, with a performance ending at midnight.
Holly Hernandez, the director of Students on Target and a mass communication junior, said Groovin’ has always promoted wellness and good health, and it has always emphasized responsible and moderate drinking habits.
Hernandez said Students on Target has tried to re-focus this year’s Groovin’ on the Grounds with a stronger emphasis on students’ well-being and cultivating healthy habits.
Hernandez said agents from Alcohol and Tobacco Control will join LSU police officers this year to maintain security at Groovin’.
Hernandez said at Groovin’ last year, LSUPD did a great job. But she said it takes a lot of officers to patrol such a large crowd, and it gets expensive to pay all of them. ATC agents volunteer.
“Last year, we cleaned the Parade Grounds with our hands, so we know what kind of stuff was going on,” Hernandez said. “We picked up alcohol bottles with our hands, and that’s just not the point. If people really have to go out and drink that night, then this is not really the place for them.”
Nicole Rios, the public relations executive for Students on Target and a mass communication junior, said the presence of the ATC agents will not only keep some things from happening that would otherwise have gone on — it will also reinforce the wellness message.
“If they really are there to see the music, then just because they can’t get drunk shouldn’t deter them from coming to see it,” Rios said. “That’s what we’re trying to promote — a good time, not wasted.”
Rios said the preparation for this year’s festival was greater than any other year that she has been involved.
“I don’t think in previous years they started as early as we did,” Rios said.
Planning for Groovin’ began in summer 2004 when executives started meeting at least once a month to discuss plans.
“Other than the selection of the bands … we had a lot of stuff mapped out early on,” Hernandez said.
Rios also said raising public awareness of the festival was a high priority.
“We’re trying to create kind of like a brand name,” Rios said. “[We want] to let people know that Students on Target sponsors Groovin’ on the Grounds and that it’s not just a concert but a wellness festival, too.”
Rios said most people who know about Groovin’ do not know who sponsors it or what its intended purpose is, and that is one of the main things Students on Target hopes to change.
 
The Festival
“The whole point in having the festival and the concert is an alternative to the students, something really fun to do that they can come to, and it’s substance free,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez said Students on Target reached out this year to as many student organizations as possible to try to promote a broad range of fun activities for the festival part of Groovin’.
She said many people do not know the festival promotes a message of responsible drinking and healthy living. So Students on Target tried to link as many fun activities as possible into the overall theme for the event.
“It’s kind of hard to tie face painting into a wellness message, but any activity we can tie in, we try,” Hernandez said. Chi Omega sorority is sponsoring a face-painting booth.
Hernandez also said Students on Target actively tried to get more student organizations and departments involved with the festival this year.
“We figured if more people were involved in the event, we’d have an even bigger event,” Hernandez said.
She said the organization sent e-mails to other student organizations to convince them to sponsor booths at the festival. It was the first time Students on Target did so much to involve other organizations.
Hernandez said with more than 300 organizations at the University, it was difficult to get all of them to participate. Some had never heard of Groovin’ or Students on Target, so they were forced to explain what the event was about.
“We didn’t have an overwhelming response from student organizations but more than we’ve ever had before,” Hernandez said. “And it’s a really diverse mix.”
Rios said that even with a less-than-ideal response from organizations, any response is still a positive sign of things to come.
“It’s definitely a step in getting more of the campus involved in it,” Rios said.
Some of the organizations with booths during the festival are the Indian Students Association, which will be doing a unique style of hand painting, the Red Cross, which is sponsoring a horseshoe tournament, and Chi Omega sorority, which will have face-painting in their booth.
Jennifer Bishop, the advisor for Students on Target, said, “The organizations and departments have really stepped up to help.”
Several University departments are also participating.
Kathy Saichuk, a wellness education coordinator, said the Student Health Center and Wellness Education Department have worked with Students on Target several times for Groovin’ on the Grounds.
This year, they are passing out “Safe Spring Break” packets in their booth.
The packets will contain condoms and literature about sexual health, sun safety and water hydration.
Hernandez said the inflatable obstacle course Groovin’ has had in past years will be made more difficult this year with the addition of “drunk goggles” on loan from the health center.
Saichuk said the goggles enable the wearer to see just how distorted vision becomes when drunk.
Hernandez said this is one way the link between the wellness message and fun activities is made.
“[We are] trying to get healthy information out there to help students make the best choices they can for themselves,” Saichuk said.
Hernandez said University Recreation is going to be at the festival with a rock wall set up and will be teaching fitness classes.
She also said Cox Communications will be on the Parade Ground taping MTV VJ auditions for anyone interested.
Hernandez said that while this is not the most “wellness-oriented” activity, it is one way to draw in students to Groovin’.
“Anyway we can promote the message of responsible drinking, we’re going to try,” Hernandez said.
Also featured at the festival will be Miss Teen USA, Shelley Hennig, a Louisiana resident.
Hennig’s brother died in a drunken driving accident three years ago, so responsible drinking is a topic she often speaks about.
“I’ve never heard of anything like Groovin’ on the Grounds,” Hennig said. “I think it’s a really great idea.”
With all these activities during the festival, Hernandez hopes to bring the focus of Groovin’ back to the wellness message, while still letting students have fun.
“Our event, being substance free, is kind of our way of saying, ‘Look how much fun you can have without going out and drinking,’” Hernandez said.
 
The Concert
The decision for this year’s concert lineup was decided much later than usual.
Hernandez said one of the reasons for the late start this year was the challenge of finding bands that had not been booked on the date set that Students on Target could afford.
Students on Target was also unsure how much they could spend when it was time to start booking bands. The organization had to hold off until it could make a realistic bid on an artist and still have enough to spend on other performers.
Hernandez said the fee increase students voted to give Groovin’ did not come into effect until later than Students on Target expected, so the organization could not make a decision until much later than usual.
Hernandez said Students on Target listened to many different opinions on which artists to bring to the concert.
Students on Target listened to opinions from everyone from random students to the Student Government executive staff. They even used thefacebook.com to see which artists were popular with University students.
But ultimately, the organization had to make its decision based on what was available and what it could afford.
Hernandez said that instead of focusing all the money on one really expensive superstar, Students on Target decided to find several popular artists they could afford to represent a broad range of musical tastes.
Included in the lineup are Ryan Cabrera, Ying Yang Twins, Better Than Ezra, Bonnie McKee, Jamie O’Neal and Common Curtis.
“Even if we had gotten one main act, we would have gotten criticism from students,” Rios said. “So we wanted to get something for everyone.”
Though the theme of Groovin’ is promoting alcohol responsibility and no drugs, some of the performers are not in-line with the theme.
The Ying Yang Twins’ catalog includes songs about both excessive drinking and drug use.
“We didn’t look past it,” Hernandez said. “But we also got to a point where we had to be realistic about the situation … we didn’t have very many options as far as the rap is concerned.”
Rios said the performers know they are required to perform a PG-13 show, and they understand the type of festival Groovin’ is.
“We did consider lyrics and what their songs were about,” Hernandez said. “But it’s music. And students know that a lot of stuff we listen to may not be something we believe in.”
One artist, Kieran, was scheduled to perform at Groovin’ but has since dropped out because of a death in his family.
Bishop said that in order to fill this vacancy, a select group of National Pan-Hellenic Council sororities and fraternities will perform a step show to open the concert.
She also said that because of the attention the media have given Groovin’ this year, several radio stations have been publicizing the event, and almost all the artists have their own local DJ to introduce them.
Hernandez said with the number of conflicting opinions in Students on Target, she feels it selected a pretty good mix of performers for the concert.
With the drastic restructuring of the organization and the focus on student organization involvement, this year’s Groovin’ on the Grounds is going to be radically different from years past.