The Holmes Student Center was riddled with activities evoking the vibes of the 2000’s with sweet treats available Thursday night as part of CAB’s Y2K event celebrating activities from the 2000s.
Short for “year 2000,” Y2K was a late-night event which took place from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. and included several activities spread out across the First Floor.
There were nine activities in total which all received quite a bit of attention from groups of students with their friends. These activities were karaoke, CD painting, airbrush t-shirts, several inflatable obstacle courses, recess games, a caricature artist, mini photo booth, trivia games with snacks and bedazzling.
Amarion Weathersby, a communications junior and president of CAB, was happy to see the turnout and wants to hear more ideas from NIU students about events they can hold on campus.
“Y2K was inspired by students who thought it was cool,” Weathersby said. “My team and I worked it out and listened to student opinion in order to bring this event together. We value student opinion and invite you to give us your suggestions.”
Y2K saw a heavy number of students in attendance which only grew larger as the night wore on. The event saw between 750-800 people attend which is around the average for CAB events of this scale.
The first event closest to the entrance was the CD painting in The College Grind lounge area where students were invited to paint and decorate plain shirts, bags and CDs of choice with a variety of paint brushes of various colors.
The airbrush t-shirts were by far the most popular activity at the event with the lines stretching all the way to The College Grind.
The hiss of paint blowers and pile of unpainted shirts attracted quite a number of students to the Gallery Lounge with most walking away with shirts dyed in various patterns, symbols and emblems of their choice. The activity received so much attention the station eventually ran out of shirts to hand out after two hours of nonstop airbrushing.
The caricature artist was also in the Gallery Lounge and drew portraits of students with their friends at their request.
A trivia game was held in Capitol Room North with various lights illuminating the walls in green, white and pink. The trivia questions revolved around pop culture songs, animated movies and other topics from the year 2000.
Visitors also stopped by and devoured the sweet treats of brownies, rice krispie treats and ice cream sandwiches savoring them while they explored the event.
There were three of the obstacle courses which were all in the Duke Ellington Ballroom. Several students challenged their friends and peers and raced through them to the finish line, scrambling to get the win.
Tony Hill, a first-year time arts major, particularly liked the obstacle course the most out of all the events.
“My favorite was definitely the obstacle course,” Hill said. “It’s been a while since I’ve run through one. I would love to come back to this event.”
The recess style games were held in the Regency Room with several games such as jump rope and cart racing being available.
Karaoke was held in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium with visitors being able to sign up for a chance to sing their hearts out to a song of their choice alone or with friends on-stage.
Rose Henderson, a first-year sports management major, really enjoyed the events at Y2K and liked having them in the Holmes Student Center.
“Oh yeah, I like this event,” Henderson said. “I love events like this in the Holmes Student Center.”
