Saturday’s alternative halftime entertainment left me and other Rattlers with mixed feelings. While the celebrity guests definitely filled the alloted time between quarters, I can’t honestly say that the void of the Marching 100 was filled.
“I think that it should have been in the middle of the field at the 50 yard line,” said Melia Watson, a senior cardiopulmonary science major from Dacula,Ga. “If it was going to be a performance then it should have been just that. Not put off in the corner like it wasn’t as big of a deal as they made the students believe it was going to be.”
I share the feelings of many students who felt slighted by Future’s performance. It was exciting to see an actual celebrity performing at our football game. My excitement faded after realizing that I could barely see him.
“It [the performance] in no way could compare with the Hundred,” said Daniel Ware, a senior business student from Chicago, Ill. ” I felt more like I was watching a YouTube video, than a halftime show. Nonetheless, I have faith in FAMU that homecoming performances will be amazing.”
Maybe I was wrong for expecting the halftime performance to happen on the football field rather than a stage outside of the gates. But who seriously thought that a performance like that would remotely compare to the symphonic sound of hundreds of instruments belting out popular songs in the middle, not on the side of Bragg Stadium.
Not to knock our football team, but those are the moments I hoped would never end when looking back on our football games.
“It seemed like the performance was geared toward the local community instead of the student body,” said Marcus Benjamin, a senior business student from Tallahassee.
Kudos to those who made an effort to supplement this year’s home game experience with alternate entertainment. But let’s face it, the suspension of the Marching 100 had us puzzled. Not having the 400 plus members of what we once proudly proclaimed as the “baddest band in the land” present at not only games but freshman orientation, convocation, pep rallies and various parades is definitely a reality check. Filling that void is a very difficult and inevitable task. Finding multiple entities that draw crowds to FAMU events as much as the Marching 100 takes tact.
It is my sincere hope that the live entertainment at future FAMU events improves. These are the moments that we will tell our children about. These are the memories that will shape our college experiences. After the cameras and the reporters leave, we, the students, are the ones still attending this university. It is out of adversity that we find our true strengths as a student body. There is no one who can decide what we want better than us.