Homecoming weekend kicked off on Friday, September 27th with several events for the day. Some of these events were catered to alumni, but others were for students and families to enjoy too. The biggest event of the day was Oktoberfest, an annual event put on by MEISA each year.
Homecoming weekend started with the Vermont Locavore Dinner at 4:30 PM in the Stevens Dining Hall. At 5 PM, registration for the weekend was set up in the theater lobby, where people could pick up a map and schedule for the weekend.
The Athletic Hall of Fame Members Social started in the Moore Community Room at 5 PM. This was a free event with special invite with RSVP required to attend. At 5:30 PM, this turned to the Athletic Hall of Fame and Alumni Awards Banquet. Here they honored the 2024 Hall of Fame inductees, Mikayla Hodge ’18, Brandon Hunter ’19, Daniel Sleeman ’94, and Robert Trucott ’13. Some Alumni were also given awards at this event.
MEISA started setting up Oktoberfest in the early afternoon. This year, Oktoberfest featured three artists, two of which were student openers, Seairra and The Watermelons. Seairra is a solo singer-songwriter who, for Oktoberfest, had an accompanying band behind her consisting of Jared Boren and Mollie Steinhoff. The Watermelons is a punk and classic rock trio that includes Jane Bradley, Ben Perreault, and former student Athena Gallagher. The headlining act was the Jesse Taylor Band, a four-piece band from Burlington. Some students may have seen this band at The Loading Dock in Littleton during the spring semester. During Oktoberfest, there were free bratwurst and a cash beer garden. There were pumpkins that people could carve throughout the night along with chalk left out for people to draw on the sidewalk.
While Oktoberfest was underway, a fire at the Vail Fire Pit was being hosted by CAB. Alumni sat around the fire sharing stories about their time at Lyndon or talking about how the campus has changed since they graduated, making S’mores along the way. There were also Girlscout cookies for people to have, some people even decided to use them in place of gramcrackers for their S’Mores.
Feature Photo by Evan Colman || The Black Lives Matter and Pride flags overlooking Veteran’s Park