The Big Blue Bang that took place this past weekend on campus involved a lot of planning and funding. APB’s president Jordan Campagone explains the process of planning this idea into an event.

“Last year APB had a small part in it, but this year we wanted to take on more responsibility.” “We partnered up with athletics and both of us are taking on the full event. APB took on the entertainment part of it, so the food trucks, the fireworks, the open-skating….”

When asked about how they could make the fireworks and food trucks a reality, Campagone explained the process. “So, with fireworks we just used the company that we used last year and the beginning of this year, we did fireworks down at the river view tent, so we just kind of did that same process. We [APB] do a lot and already have a process that we know how to do. For food trucks, I went and looked up food trucks in Portland, Maine on Google and I went on Facebook and I just contacted a whole bunch,” Campagone explained.

“The issue that we came into was it being winter, so not a lot of food trucks are in service, so we wanted to have a huge rodeo with like ten trucks, but we did five, but that is still good, because last year we only had one.”

“A lot of collaboration. Altogether there were twenty people, from different departments,” Campagone says, when asked how many people were involved in the planning process. Planning a big event also involves managing a big budget. “A lot of the budget is coming from APB for trucks, and for advertisements. Flyers are a big thing, that cost a lot of money to print.” Campagone explains, “we knew we were going to oversee this event going into this semester, so we just budgeted our money to make sure we had enough.”

When asked about, safety, environmental precautions, and permits that had to be obtained, Campagone explains, “We had to make sure it was far away from the dorms and the forum itself. It’s a lot to get permits and then notify the neighbors, that this is going to happen and make sure that they are okay with it. Last year we had no problems, and the next day the cleanup crew goes around and makes sure everything is cleaned up, along with EST [Event Support Team], I believe they’re going to take part in that.” It certainly shows that planning and budgeting an event is a team effort.

From the food trucks to the fireworks, students were raving about the event. RA, Nick Prez, said “I am really happy the school did this, it’s great.” And Miranda Hall stated “this is the best event APB has ever had.” Although APB was only responsible for part of it, a huge portion of the advertisement and planning came from the organization. The club had been working on the Big Blue Bang since November. The athletics department and USG were also involved into putting the day together. An ice sculpture was dedicated to USG and APB for all their hard work and making events, such as the Big Blue Bang, possible and enjoyable for the student body.

During the halftime of the men’s basketball game, there was the ball toss. Hundreds of blue foam balls were handed out with numbers on the back of them, then, a bucket painted like a basket was taken out and placed on the court. Everyone in the crowd threw their ball in hopes it would land in the basket. Prizes where given out to all who were able to make the throw.

There were four food trucks at the forum on Saturday. They arrived between the women’s and men’s basketball games. Jill Henrichon reported “the free food was the best idea, it really attracts college students.” One truck was mac ‘n cheese, my personal favorite, and serves free samples of plain or bacon. Another was deep fried PB and J and peanut butter and fluff sandwiches, there was also a BBQ truck, and a poutine truck for the Canadian in all of us.

After the men’s game, everyone crowded around the fire pits and watched a fifteen-minute firework show while Katy Perry’s song “Firework” played. Once the show was finished, open skate started. There was hot chocolate and blue whoopee pies. Stormin’ Norman even joined in on the fun and skated with the rest of the UNE students. Forty-five minutes into open skate, APB directed a set of team games. The teams played four corners, limbo, and had a pie eating contest just to name a few. Based on the students rave over the event and the overall turn out in attendance, I am sure our school will throw and even bigger Blue Bang next year.