Imagine, you've worked hard for months and months- trying to get the grade, pass those tests, and most importantly, secure that summer internship. You've missed plenty of meals over stress, hold the world record for all-nighters, and haven't actually slept longer than four hours a night since receiving your acceptance letter. Sure, getting an "A" in your hardest class is a great reward at the end of spring semester, but what if your school made the deal even better? At the Mount, we don't just finish spring semester, we RAMPage!
RAMPage weekend is a staple of the spring semester at Mount St. Mary's University and usually occurs around the last weekend in April. It's a celebration of the students' accomplishments that not only includes a raging paint party, but also features a concert with a chart-topping band. RAMPage is held by the student-ran activities program on campus, AMP. Hence the name, R'AMP'age.
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Now, RAMPage hasn't always been as we know it today. It originally began in 2013, but wasn't called RAMPage, with a concert in our on-campus club, 1808, on Friday night, with 'Glowcrazy' occurring on Saturday. For those like myself who are newer to campus and don't know, 'Glowcrazy' featured Headphone Disco and a designated area for paint throwing.
You would enter memorial, go off to a little booth to get attacked with florescent paint, grab a pair of headphones, and then head off to the dance floor, where you got to pick which of the two DJs you listened to via the headphones.
Not too incredibly different from the 'Glowrage' we know today, but we've definitely been more ambitious in the past few years.
Spring of 2015 was the first year we officially labeled it as RAMPage and had the concert move to Founder's plaza for the first ever outdoor concert ran by AMP on campus. Misterwives got the weekend started with a bang, hyping everyone up for the following day when 'Glowrage' rolled around. 'Glowrage' gives us the live painting throwing, DJ track spinning, light show rave that we all know and love.
This Mount tradition may still be on the newer side, but any student here (besides maybe the Freshmen) can probably tell you how much they look forward to this weekend every year. If they can't, allow the numbers to do the talking. In an end of year survey taken of the students:
74% of students agreed that Glowrage and outdoor concerts were the most popular events.
82.8% of students saying that they were either likely or extremely likely to attend these events again.
Not only that, but since 2013, attendance at both events have double in the past three years. The campus wants RAMPage, and why shouldn't they? Both events offer one last time to really cut loose and have fun on campus before the end of the year.
A few other schools host similar events, such as bringing a big name artist to their campus. But, if every school were able to celebrate their students at the end of the year like the Mount, how would their students benefit?
This year's RAMPage weekend is happening April 28th-29th, with the outdoor concert artist being announce March 20th. #WHOSNEXT
