Super Bulldog Weekend brought Mississippi State fans together to celebrate the spring homecoming through activities that included two baseball games, a football scrimmage, a pig cooking contest, the State Farm Fan Fair and a concert by Grammy award-winner Michelle Branch.
Members of Music Maker Productions, the student organization that brought the Virgin College Mega Tour featuring Michelle Branch and Joe Firstman to Starkville, said the concert went well, but the attendance of approximately 1,100 people was not as high as they expected.
“The concert went really well, but we were disappointed that not as many people showed up,” Lou Frascogna, publicity chairman for Music Maker, said.
Music Maker officers attribute the lack of attendance to fraternity parties, a concert on Thursday night, a high school prom and other conflicting events.
“It got caught up in a lot of other things happening,” Frascogna said. “It is hard to find something that a lot of students will come to.”
Branch’s target audience is another reason the attendance was lower than expected.
“Michelle Branch appeals to a younger audience, so that could be a reason we did not have a huge attendance,” Cliff Jones, student director of Music Maker, said. “We wish that more students would have come to it, though.”
After the concert was over, delays in taking a tent down caused two Music Maker members to sleep at the amphitheater Saturday night.
“I did not get much sleep,” Jones said. “We had to stay out there for insurance reasons, because if students were climbing on it, we would be liable.”
Event organizers said they feel that the fan fair and pig-cooking contest were both successful.
Dianne Keith, secretary for the Bulldog Club, said the fan fair was a large event.
“The State Farm Fan Fair was one of the largest if not largest fan fairs that we have had,” Keith said.
The Virgin College Mega Tour had an interactive village with interactive games and a stage where musical artists, Michael Tolcher, Tyler Hilton and Chris Grace performed.
“The games really added to it,” Keith said.
The interactive games included a basketball toss, a Volvo Xbox game, an Uno card game, a Dentyne wheel spin and a Closeup toothpaste dice roll.
The Heavenly Hogs cooking team was the overall winner for the pig-cooking contest as well as the rib category. Smokin’ Guns won the whole hog category, and Camo-Cookers won the shoulder category.
“We had a good turnout for the contest,” Mark Crenshaw, a spokesman for the Mississippi Pork Producers, said. “We had nice weather, and I think that everyone had a good time.”