This year’s Homecoming Weekend kicked off on Friday, Oct. 23 with the fourth annual Swimsuit Sprint and Fall Concert. The evening started around 6 p.m. when students flocked to Kayo Field to donate their clothes to the Salvation Army.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity and SCOPE sponsored the event. The purpose of the event is to have students donate clothes to families in need and “stripping” down to bathing suits and running around campus to raise money.

Steven Gillette, a senior at University of New Haven and Treasurer of SAE said, “This is our largest philanthropy event of the year, and it’s also the biggest concert of the fall semester.”

Gillette also shared how the idea for the event originated. “One of our founding members wanted to do this event called an “undies run,” but we weren’t able to call it that, so he got it approved by the administration and now we’re in our fourth year of doing it.”

According to Gillette, the main goal of the event is to donate as many clothes as possible to the Salvation Army. The event has gotten bigger every year and is now a common name around campus.

When asked about SAE’s plans for expansion, Gillette responded, “The run is longer this year, we have a bigger band and basically everything is getting bigger.”

As barely clothed runners swarmed into the Beckerman Recreation Center, the opening band, The Funk Dawgz Brass Band, greeted them. The band then took the stage to open the concert. Their loud and in-your-face New Orleans style jazz had the whole crowd dancing.

Their music is a combination of jazz, big band, funk and hip hop, all coming together to make an awesome original sound. They played popular covers of Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Starting Something” and the most recent funk-smash hit “Uptown Funk.”

The headliner for the show was pop-punk band We the Kings. They came out and immediately shook the floor with their huge sound. Having been around for a while, the

band has gained quite a following, which was apparent with students at UNH. The crowd was really into their set, with many people singing most of the songs. The band was extremely interactive with the crowd, showing their appreciation and funny stage banter.

They sang several old songs and ended with their two most popular. Their second to last song was an extended version of “Say You Like Me” and finally finished with their biggest hit, “Check Yes Juliet.” For these two songs, especially the last, the crowd was electric with every person jumping and singing along.
“It was great to relive the songs I loved when I was a teenager,” senior Karina Irizarry said.

We the Kings rocked Beckerman Recreation Center to finish out an awesome night and a successful fundraising event.