In this episode of Digital Diaries, The Daily talks to Dillo Day first-timers about whether or not the day lived up to their expectations.
VIVEKA SARAVANAN: I honestly didn’t have solid expectations going into it, but I didn’t know there would be two stages and all the food trucks. I didn’t know it would take up the entirety of the Lakefill. It was so much bigger than I expected it to be.
VALENTINA VALCARCE: That was Bienen freshman Viveka Saravanan sharing her first impressions of Dillo Day.
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VALENTINA VALCARCE: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Valentina Valcarce. This is Digital Diaries, a podcast capturing peoples’ lives in their own words.
Last Saturday, the 53rd Dillo Day took over Northwestern’s campus, drawing a record-breaking crowd of more than 10,000 attendees — many of whom were experiencing the festival for the very first time.
But for Saravanan, the excitement didn’t fully hit until she stepped onto the Lakefill herself.
VIVEKA SARAVANAN: Honestly, I was kind of unsure about it going in, for personal reasons, just because I don’t love like crowded spaces and like loud noise, but honestly when I got there, it totally exceeded my expectations. Especially when Natasha (Bedingfield) came out. Her energy and her stage presence just made the vibes amazing. It was so much fun.
VALENTINA VALCARCE: It wasn’t just the first Dillo for the Class of 2028, but also for transfer students. Communication junior Sydney Ragland was looking forward to the festival before she even arrived at Northwestern.
SYDNEY RAGLAND: One of my good friends, her sister went here, and so when I texted her about being interested in transferring here, she connected me with a few girls.
They told me about Dillo Day and they said that it was this really fun event that everyone goes to and they were telling me about all the headliners, and I just got very excited about all of it.
VALENTINA VALCARCE: For Ragland, the nighttime headliner also stood out as the highlight of her experience.
SYDNEY RAGLAND: My favorite moment was probably when I was with my friend, and we were watching Natasha Bedingfield, and she was singing ‘Unwritten,’ and I think it was the last song in her set, and it was the last part of Dillo Day.
We were just singing our hearts out.
VALENTINA VALCARCE: Other attendees, like McCormick freshman Jeremy Alcántara, were impressed by the vast number of performers and how big the festival was.
JEREMY ALCÁNTARA: I think coming from me, you know, (it’s) one of the few concerts I’ve been to, and I think Dillo was like such a large scale. They had some pretty good performers.
VALENTINA VALCARCE: Alcántara stayed the entire festival and got to see Ravyn Lenae, Iann Dior and Natasha Bedingfield — but one act stood out as his favorite.
JEREMY ALCÁNTARA: I was a really big fan of 41. You know, I was in the middle of all the mosh pits. My neck came out hurting. That’s how you know it was a good performance.
VALENTINA VALCARCE: Now that Ragland has experienced her first Dillo Day, she is already excited for the next one.
SYDNEY RAGLAND: I’ll definitely know what to expect, because I don’t think this year I really knew, I saw pictures, but I had no idea what to make of it.
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VALENTINA VALCARCE: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Valentina Valcarce. Thanks for listening to another episode of Digital Diaries. This episode was reported and produced by Valentina Valcarce and Isabella Jacob.
The Audio Editor is Isabella Jacob. The Multimedia Managing Editors are Anavi Prakash, Misha Manjuran Oberoi and Danny O’Grady. The Editor in Chief is Lily Ogburn.
Our theme music is “Falaal” by Blue Dot Sessions used under an Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Email: [email protected]
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