SWOSU Palooza was a few weeks ago, and more student opinions are coming out. It seems this year as well it was the lowest attendance yet. Every year it seems to have gotten lower and lower, why is that? The only information that has been found is from the past two years. There was an attendance of 205 this year while last year it was 307.
The Palooza has been a campus event for over 20 years now. They have had many different popular headliners come in to perform for SWOSU. This event began as a free event for all students. Palooza attendance began dropping in 2010. This was likely from the new cost to attend, the rise of Spotify, and the decline of local music scenes. Luckly, for the ever-struggling college student, free entrance to Palooza was back for the year 2026.
With the charge being taken away you would think more students would attend, but it wasn’t that way. So, then you had to look at the headliners. This year it was Jacob Stelly and American Slang. A lot of students didn’t know these artists or enjoy that genre of music, so it made it hard for them to attend. The past few years the bands being featured are lower named bands, but is this truly why they didn’t attend? Carly Sites, who did not attend this year, she stated, “I didn’t really know the band. It contributed a little to me not going, but I just wasn’t into that style of music.” So, overall, the band may have a little effect on if students are going to attend, but I feel like it seems to be more of a genre thing, which you cannot control.
These are all the simple things that we can notice on the surface, but what do the students have to say? Speaking with Anabelle Anderson she stated, “I noticed the event began to have less people and was less enjoyable since the enforcement of a dry event became stricter.” SWOSU palooza has been a dry even since 2005, but it’s become more enforced over the past few years. It’s understandable for safety reasons, but many college students find the event more enjoyable when they are able to drink.
SGA Senate member Kambree Hammons, who oversaw the event. She stated, “Palooza was great and so much fun! The bands were super friendly and had great energy. Everything went according to plan day of event which is all we could have asked for so I’ll consider it a success! We did as much promoting for the event as we could so even though numbers were as high as they could’ve been, I know we did everything in our power to get people to come out.” Everything she said was as true as it could be. Looking through Instagram, there were many videos made to try to promote the event, and there were flyers put up around town. The numbers were low, but it’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason as to why.
This event is meant for the students. It was created to give back to the students for all the time and hard work they put in during school. SGA puts this event on with our student money unless there is more fundraising going on behind the scenes. They are trying to make an event for the students to get out as there isn’t much to do in this town. It’s supposed to be for students, but it’s turning out that students would rather go to the city or the bar. Colleges all over the world have events like this for the students, but ours seems to be slowly coming to an end. I hope it can continue, but we need to get the students more into it and get involved. This event is something that they need to be able to look forward to every year, not just forgotten about.
