For the first time in its 73-year history, Green Key Weekend has a theme but Director of Student Planning Linda Kennedy said this is not a "monumental decision."
The Programming Board, which Kennedy advises instituted the theme -- "Helldorado."
The Programming Board has a hand in almost every event on campus this weekend and master-minded the planning of Saturday's festivals on the Green.
Chair of the Programming Board's Green Key Planning Committee Kerri Cavanaugh '95 said the committee decided to have a theme so Saturday's events would not "be simply 'the event on the Green.'"
Kennedy said she has been planning a trip West with her family and has come across summer festivals in the West called "Helldorado."
She said she suggested it to the committee and they decided to try it. But she said she did not expect there to be a theme for future Green Key weekends.
The main act on the Green is the Swinging Steaks, a country/rock band from Boston, Mass.
There also will be a bevy of Programming Board-sponsored events on the Green based around the wester Helldorado theme.
Cavanaugh said the Programming Board decided to base the theme of the weekend around the band.
"Since the Swinging Steaks are a country rock band, we decided to go with the Helldorado theme," she said.
"The day has a country-ish flavor, but is by no means strictly country. There will be a wide variety of booths, events and entertainment," she added.
"But the theme was essentially derived from the main act," she added.
Some of the country-like events on the Green include a pig roast and a petting zoo.
The theme has drawn some mixed responses.
"I've noticed some subtle references to hell in the big weekend themes," Alissa Peck '94 said. "Last term it was 'When Hanover freezes over, all Carnival breaks loose' with the words Hanover and Carnival replacing the space typically filled by the word 'hell'. Are we equating this place to hell?, Because if so, I'm getting the Hanover, I mean hell out."
Jesse Israel '96 put it succinctly, "I have no idea what the theme means and I haven't heard anything about it. Basically, I feel that nobody really gives a damn about the theme and rages no matter what on Green Key."
