Summer in Moscow is akin to a ghost town. With thousands of students leaving the Palouse for trips home and vacations the town seems to get quiet — especially on campus.
Until Summer Daytime Distractions starts.
Starting on June 12, the Department of Student Involvement, along with the Idaho Commons and the Student Union Building will host Summer Daytime Distractions, a series of concerts and activities for students and members of the community to enjoy.
The main events include concerts from local Palouse acts and Screen on the Green, an outdoor movie event held on the Theophilus Tower lawn. Smaller events such as kite making, tie-dying, root beer floats and yoga are also included.
“The purpose of having summer programs is to breathe life into the campus during the summer,” said Katie Dahlinger, assistant director of student involvement. “We know a lot of the students live off-campus but it’s important to continue to provide opportunities for people to get together and I think summer activities bring a larger population together.”
Dahlinger said she’s received estimates that more than 2,200 students remain on campus during the schools three summer sessions, meaning there’s plenty of audience to keep these events going.
She said that in years past these events have been all concert based, but that this year there was more of a push to add more interactive activities.
“One of our student coordinators asked ‘what can change here?’ Well, Why don’t we do activities? Well, what do you want to see? We sort of asked the students, because they should be involved in all of our planning, what would they find fun,” Dahlinger said.
The first of those activities was a bubble party outside of the TLC on June 5. They had a bubble blowing station set up outside the commons to promote Daytime Distractions.
“Have a little fun during your day right before you go to media law, everybody needs a little break and that’s what we hope to provide,” Dahlinger said.
As for the concerts, the acts are described as hyper-local, as in Palouse-based acts, booked with the help of local artist Bart Budwig who has performed at the University of Idaho in various capacities.
Budwig will be the first performing artist on June 12, with acts such as Sesitshaya Marimba Ensemble, Tom Drake and Jeremiah Akin happening in subsequent weeks.
The Thursdays following the Wednesday performances and activities will be the Screen on the Green nights, with “Oz the Great and Powerful” being the first film shown on June 13.
Dahlinger said her goal is to see the 50 to 100 attendees at these events increase, and acknowledges that attendance beyond the student population can go a long way toward seeing that happen.
“The primary audience is always students first, but knowing there are a lot of summer conferences, high school or incoming students, there’s going to be a lot (of people),” Dahlinger said.
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]