Dillo Day 2016 to be held one week earlier
Daily file photo by Julia Azarcon
Students dance during Dillo Day 2014. This year, the annual event will be held a week earlier than usual.
December 7, 2015
Dillo Day 2016 will be a week early, Mayfest announced Monday.
The event will take place May 21, the Saturday before the last week of classes of Spring Quarter, the Division of Student Affairs and Mayfest, the student group that organizes Dillo Day, announced Monday.
Traditionally, Dillo Day has been held just before the before Reading Period. However, in years when it coincides with Memorial Day weekend, as it would in 2016, the event has been pushed to the week before.
“We worked very closely with administrators to figure out the best date for Dillo, and because it’s important that we work so closely with Evanston residents and faculty, for students to have this holiday weekend as time off to travel and relax, we decided it was best to have Dillo on May 21,” Mayfest co-chair Eric Brownrout said.
The decision to hold Dillo Day before Memorial Day and before the last week of classes was a mutual decision, considering the best outcomes for the student body and the University administration, said Elisa O’Neal, Mayfest director of promotions.
“It’s not just what we want, and they’re really good about working with us,” the SESP senior said. “We mutually decided that this was, all things considered, the best week for Dillo.”
Dillo Day organizers are also focusing on improving their relationship with Evanston residents this year and said they did not want to hold Dillo Day on a weekend when residents may want to relax.
“It’ll be the most considerate to host Dillo Day not on (Memorial Day weekend) because Dillo Day does bring in a lot of noise and a lot of tension with the community,” Brownrout said.
Brownrout and O’Neal don’t think the change in date will have a significant impact on the festival itself.
“Dillo Day is one of the greatest days of the year,” O’Neal said. “People always do a great job getting excited, getting hyped about it. We don’t see any reason why Dillo Day would be any different, why it wouldn’t be still the same great experience.”
Dillo Day last year was canceled due to bad weather, a problem organizers hope to avoid in the future.
“We learned a lot from last year, and we were very upset with how it went down,” Brownrout said. “The thing is, Dillo Day is you’re really planning a 12,000-person outdoor music festival. We’re doing research into other festivals of this size and nature and what kind of stuff they do, and working really closely with administrators.”
Correction: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story misstated the day Mayfest made its announcement. The announcement was made Monday. The Daily regrets the error.
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