News
Around noon on Saturday, more than 1000 people and their inner tubes will descend into the Connecticut River and try to maintain their places as the currents of the river push them downstream.
As they work to anchor themselves, they will listen to live music, drink legal and illegal substances and spend a day of fun in the sun.
All over campus, talk of this upcoming weekend's Tubestock event has many students anxiously awaiting Summer term's most ultimate experience.
"I can't wait for it to get here because it's going to be a lot of fun," Hector Canales '95 said.
Although Tubestock has become a Summer term tradition at Dartmouth, Student Programs Coordinator Linda Kennedy said the College and Tubestock are in no way related.
The day-long, river-top party is thrown by Richard "Boomer" Akerboom '80, who stumbled upon the tradition when he decided to hold a party on the river for this friends during the summer of 1987.
But, the incredible popularity of Tubestock, an experience most students begin to fantasize about as early as their freshmen trips, leads many to call Kennedy's office for dates of the event.
"As early as January we get phone calls asking about Tubestock and we have to tell them we have nothing to do with it," Kennedy said.
Akerboom, an environmental engineer and former member of Chi Heorot fraternity, remembered playing with his band on the deck of their river front apartment in Norwich, Vt., commonly referred to as the "River Ranch," during the first event.
"There must have been around 200 people during the first Tubestock," Akerboom said.
According to Akerboom, the idea of floating on a innertube in the river soon caught on as more and more people, including Dartmouth students, began to participate in the summer event.
Akerboom soon realized his original party for friends had become a Dartmouth tradition, on par with the building of the Homecoming Bonfire and the Winter Carnival Sculpture.
The event does not cost much at all, Akerboom said.
