As a senior who has lived on the tri-campus for the last four years. I have the unique ability to tell you about the best events that take place on campus and what you should look forward to during your time here. And because I ran out of time and my Inside column was due, I am going to list them for you here in a top five style.
1. The Keenan Revue
The Keenan Revue is one of Notre Dame’s Men’s halls charity events. The Revue is a skit show comparable to the likes of SNL, only this show is filled with jokes about the tri-campus and its students. Complete with a new theme each year, this year’s being “Et Tu Revuetè?” This year’s revue is this weekend and I believe I am not alone in looking forward to seeing it. However, the Knights of Keenan Hall have big shoes to fill after their predecessors bestowed upon us gems like “South Bend State Bend of Mind” and “The News.” But I’m sure our Knights in shinning whatever their dorm color is will do great this year. The Keenan guys always know how to put on a great show from live musical performances to jokes about each other’s moms while said mothers are in the audience. Which always leaves everyone on stage to break character. And we defiantly can’t forget the “dancing” to Abba and Ariana Grande songs, but I think that’s all I’m allowed to say on that topic in the pages of The Observer. Anyways the Keenan Revue is always a fun time, you gotta love hearing jokes about anything and everything on campus, nothing is off the table and that’s why we love it.
2. The Fisher Regatta
The Fisher Regatta is an annual charity event hosted by the men of Fisher Hall on Saint Mary’s Lake. Students will spend weeks building their “boats” in order to compete in the Regatta to see who can make it across the lake first. Now “boat” is a loose term, by “boat” I mean anything that floats. At last year’s Regatta we saw everything from boats made of cardboard, pool noodles, inflatable pools and mattresses to boats made out of plastic moving bins. The boat made out of the moving bins was my favorite, as it wasn’t just a boat. It was a boat to entertain, complete with a Fisher Price basketball hoop and even a secret compartment that the “sailors” used to keep a stash of Big Macs in. And when the boat finally went down as most do at the Fisher Regatta the guys made sure to save the Big Macs before themselves. All in all, it’s always entertaining and fun to experience. Last year I was even able to get in on the fun when I was allowed to take pictures for The Observer from the police boat that circles the area to help sailors that have fallen into the water. But let me be clear I was NOT on the boat that tipped over one of the teams, I was on the other one.
3. Snow Globe Football Games
This next one is not really a tradition but it’s something that everyone should get to experience at least once in their college life. The Snow Globe Game, a football game that takes place during a snowstorm. I was lucky enough to experience it last year during the Boston College game, and it was quite literally unexplainable, but I’ll try. Now if you don’t like snow skip to the next entry because you will simply not understand what I am about to say. Notre Dame football games are always fun and usually exciting, but the snow just adds another layer to it. You’re standing there in the student section freezing to death, but it doesn’t matter. Your team is playing and your huddled up with your friends sharing the one blanket someone thought to bring because you didn’t expect a blizzard. But like I said before it doesn’t matter your just living your best life watching football in the snow. Experiencing every single play in a new way and then the Irish score a touchdown and your filled with this terrified rush as you struggle not to fall on the now snow-covered bleachers. It’s unlike anything else and can be compared to nothing else.
4. First Snow, Snowball Fight
One of my favorite traditions here on campus happens usually at the end of the fall semester but has yet to happen this year (Anyone who says different is wrong, that wasn’t real because the snow didn’t even last a day). After the first snowfall of the season all students will meet on South Quad at midnight to participate in a school wide snowball fight unlike any you have seen before. Some people will target their friends but most just aim for anything that moves. Last year Leprechaun Ryan even DJ’ed the fight with a sick playlist. And without fail, a lightsaber battle always breaks out cause why wouldn’t Notre Dame students have overly tricked out lightsabers in their dorms that they brought from home to college.
5. The Shamrock Series Games
The final one is not usually on campus but it’s a campus tradition nonetheless. The Shamrock Series Game is an annual football game played in a “special” but also neutral location. My freshman year the Shamrock Series game got pushed due to COVID. The following year Notre Dame played the University of Wisconsin at Soldier Field in Chicago, complete with College Game Day. That game was a great first step into the world of college football as a student because the year before there was no student section or even any fans besides us students because of COVID. This was the first time I got to watch the Irish play the way we were meant to, surrounded by a sea of fellow fans, all rooting for the same goal, an Irish win. And it was icing on the cake to see the stream of fans in red leaving the nosebleed seats before the game was even over, as the Irish came back from behind to win the game. Last year the game was held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas against the Brigham Young football team, which The Observer coined as the “Bible Brawl” in Sin City. All leading to my senior year game this past year where both fans and students traveled to Dublin, Ireland to watch the Notre Dame Irish play the US Naval Academy at Aviva Stadium, in this year’s installment of the Shamrock Series Game. I was lucky enough to be asked to cover the game for the Observer as a photographer, so I got to watch from the sidelines and needless to say, it was the experience of a lifetime.
All this is to say that there are so many memorable and honestly once in a lifetime, things and events that I have gotten to do or experience during my time here. This is only a small sample of what is possible during your time and what you can look forward to.
You can contact Meghan at mlange03@saintmarys.edu.
