K-State Student Union Program Council hosted its second annual Cattywampus, a K-State Proud Celebration at Memorial Stadium on Thursday evening.
In honor of K-State Proud’s 10th year and the organization’s accomplishments in raising more than $1 million and helping more than 520 Students, UPC and K-State Proud partnered to present a concert featuring New Politics, a Danish-American band, and The Notionaries, out of Oklahoma City.
“Luckily, we were able to partner with UPC and they are able to set up contract negotiations with multiple people and the New Politics kind of fell into the timeline that we wanted and when they were touring,” Luke Schnefke, senior in mechanical engineering and K-State Proud co-chair, said.
“This is a K-State Proud celebration,” Schnefke said. “It is at the end of the year, celebrating our entire last year as a campus, so obviously K-State Proud can’t be done without an entire campus effort, and we want to go ahead and recognize that.”
K-State Proud is students helping students, which means students are the ones raising the money and allocating the money to students who are in financial need, which helps them stay at K-State, Schnefke said.
The planning for the concert started last October with a big idea that led to signing the contract in February with New Politics, according to Schnefke.
UPC was a big part of the planning of the Cattywampus concert and getting the concert to happen, according to Schnefke and Caleb Fenn, junior in management and UPC music committee co-chair.
“(UPC) brought all the artists and we are kind of the controlling power, or the event planners,” Fenn said.
UPC does a lot of research in order to see what students are wanting to hear through surveys that they send out every year, according to Fenn.
“Our goal is to find a band that, in a couple years people will look back and say, ‘Oh my gosh, they came to our campus,'” Fenn said. “That is what we wanted our vibe to be with this one and we did a lot of research into what students might like.”
UPC and K-State Proud were expecting a lot of people to show up to the event, Fenn said. Because it was a free concert, they had a hard time getting a solid number, but wanted to make sure their venue was large enough to fit as many people as they could.
“They are an up-and-coming band and it’s just a good thing to look back at and say that you were there when they were first starting out,” Elizabeth Andrasik, freshman in elementary education, said.
Andrasik said she was very excited to come to the concert and had heard about it through a friend.
“My friend had seen it on Facebook and we thought it would be a good way to spend our Thursday night,” Andrasik said. “We both like this band and it was a free concert, so it was almost hard to beat.”
Andrasik said she had a lot of fun at the concert and hopes that K-State Proud will keep the tradition going next year.
“I was actually surprised at how many people came, and I loved that the band was actually really good live,” Andrasik said. “I have no regrets about coming out to this concert tonight, and I can’t wait to see who they get for the headliner next year.”
