Tag Archives: Zonker Harris Day

FEATURED
PHOTOS: Zonker Harris Day 2017

“Flavors, flavors, flavors.”

I donned my most floral of floral shirts and ducked out to Zonker Harris Day earlier today to get some pictures for the blog. The six hour music fest started sometime around 12 with sets from Hex Grrls and Laszlo. I arrived just after at the beginning of Tasty Desert Creatures’ set.

I was pleased to see that the Zonker Harris Day banner made a reappearance after a troubling absence. I began hearing rumors that the banner, which seems to disappear every year, was stolen in the middle of the night a few weeks ago. The thieves only left a single note that read “Nirvana? That’s the place where the powers that be and their friends hang out.” But yeah, I’m glad someone sorted all that out before showtime.

Dan Beats gave his final performance ever at around 1PM. Here’s a video of his farewell:

Continue reading →

FEATURED
Zonker Harris Day is Tomorrow So Here’s a Video of This Guy in a Parachute

Zonker Harris Day (fka Ze Who Must Not Be Named Day (fka Zonker Harris Day)) is tomorrow. The holiday in honor of the notable Doonesbury character features a yearly springtime music festival in the West College Dormitory courtyard. Whey Station and Falafel will be there. This year’s theme is ‘TIP THE ICEBERG’ according to the Facebook event description:

Continue reading →

EVENT
Zonker Harris Day 2016

zonker harris dayJulian Johnson ’19 writes in:

Zonker Harris Day is a springtime music and arts festival sponsored by the West College dormitory of Wesleyan University. The theme of Zonker Harris Day is PLEASE CLAP.

Booby Trap      12-12:15
Dan Beets       12:20-12:30
Slouch  12:30-12:50
Sneaky Sugars   12:50-1:10
Heimi Vilhelm   1:15-1:25
Rhys    1:25-1:45
Rui Barbosa     1:50-2:10
Palm Pilot      2:10-3:00
Don Froot       3:00-3:20
SassyBlack      3:20-4:10
Sensitive Inner Thoughts        4:10-5
The Murdertones    5-5:20
Nice Driveway   5:25-5:45
Locus   5:45-close

Mamoun’s Falafel Cart and The Whey Station will be parked on Pine Street outside of Exley for the duration of the event. We are going to be selling organic t-shirts sponsored by the Wesleyan Green Fund and the SBC (design to be posted). These t-shirts can be tie-dyed in the courtyard from 1-2 p.m.

Date: Saturday, April 16
Time: 12-6 PM
Place: WestCo Courtyard

FEATURED
Unofficial Orientation Series 2015: Wes Music Scene

This is my update of Q’s post from last year, which was an update of his post from 2013. Some things have changed, but  the scene here is still ‘unique, zealous, and sweaty.’

titus andronicus

New Jersey punkers Titus Andronicus at Eclectic, 5/1/2015

The more I talk to college kids at other schools, the more I realize how much the music scene at Wesleyan sets itself apart. Though we have them, we are not confined to house parties and bars — there’s music nearly every day, all week. Often, there’s so much music that you can’t possibly go to it all, but you try anyway.

Once things get going, there are 3-5 concerts every weekend, sometimes even multiple shows a night. I’ve seen more bands than I have the energy to count with more variety than I can quantify simply  by wandering around at Wesleyan on a given weekend. The folks who book shows at Wesleyan work very hard to bring in all kinds of groups, well-known or just emerging, from punk to dance, and usually put one or two solid student bands on the list.

Many student bands have gone on to greater things, like Henry Hall ‘14 of Grand Cousin (RIP), the Rooks (who are playing The Mash this year, fyi), Novelty Daughter, Overcoats, Heems of Das Racist, AND MORE. Wesleyan is also home to a unique brand of jazz/hip-hop fusion, as showcased by bands like Sky Bars and junior band Chef.

Seriously. It’s very special. What’s even better is that 95% of this stuff is totally free.

Continue reading →

EVENT
Zonker Harris Day

11126_10205068258884986_5125800116103260337_n

PSA from Alex Fabry ’18:

Zonker Harris Day is a springtime music and arts festival sponsored by
the West College dormitory of Wesleyan University.

The theme of the Zonker Harris Day festival is FRUIT.

This year Zonker Harris Day is headlined by JAW GEMS.

Setlist:
11:30 Rachel Connor’s Picture Show
12 Bean
12:15 Schwab
12:45 Anna Savage
1 Rui Barbosa
1:30 HEIMI VILHLEM
1:45 Meatwood Flac
2:15 Ka’vi and Locus
2:30 jdv plus
3 Business Fish
3:15 JAW GEMS
4:15 Jake Rosenbloom and Patrick Masi-Phelps
4:30 Jyr
5 purple
5:15 The Double Twins
5:45 Lexie Warren
6 The Electric Company

Date: Saturday, April 18th
Time: 11:30 AM- 6:30 PM
Place: The WestCo Courtyard
Facebook

EVENT
Zonker Harris Day

zonker

Zonker Harris Day is a music festival-art smorgasbord-spring time-event for all. On Saturday, April 19th, 9 bands will play in the WestCo Courtyard from 11:30 AM to ~7 PM. Specially-selected foodstuffs and art supplies will be at your disposal, and Whey station will be serving a signature Zonker sandwich in the Courtyard! WestCo will be your sandbox.

Here’s the Facebook event. Setlist and poetry after the jump!

Continue reading →

FEATURED
Zonker Harris: A Belated Photo Celebration

The Babies

As savvy Wesleying readers and residents of the Foss Hill area will know, a bevy of bands played in the WestCo courtyard on a beautiful day last weekend, including The Babies, Happy Jawbone Family Band, O Presidente, Grand Cousin, Molly Rocket and the Crooks, Siren, Laundrette, Donfroot, and Jacob and the Masters. Happy Jawbone Family Band, who are from Brattleboro, Vermont, packed the perfect stage banter for the day, continually asking the crowd about Wesleyan’s reputation for “carnal experimentation” and whether everyone in the audience had done it. “Yes, sterilely,” responded someone in the crowd. The Babies introduced energetic pop-punk that kept the crowd energized through late-afternoon nodding.

In a parallel world on Foss Hill, baked goods were sold for Stethoscope Press and a sharp-minded and well-organized group of individuals engaged in political protests. However, this post is all about the music. Specifically, it’s about how I only caught The Babies, Happy Jawbone Family Band and Molly and the Rockets and spent the rest of the time wandering around, socializing, eating and jumping in a large bouncy tent outside of Usdan. There are, however, a bevy of photos resulting from these explorations. Lose yourself, find yourself, be proud of your participation in this politically important day. (If you’re not proud, feel free to contact me and I will remove any occurrences of your slack-jawed likeness. I won’t be offended.)

FEATURED
Repost: “Hey, Prefrosh: Stay for Saturday”

As noted a few days ago, Wesleying’s A-Batte wrote a plea for prefrosh to stay for Zonker Harris Day and 4/20 and posted it on the Admissions’ “Voices” blog. It was subsequently removed by Admissions staffers, who felt it would be more appropriate for Wesleying. It’s no longer timely for prefrosh, but it is a fun and informative read, so we’re posting it here for posterity. 

Hey there, prefrosh! If you’re reading this, there is a greater-than-zero chance that you either are on campus right now or will be in the next couple days, potentially for the first time ever. If you’re a potential member of the Class of 2017, congratulations on your acceptance! Along with the rest of the Wesleyan community, I’m delighted to welcome you here, and hope that you find the various activities of WesFest this year eclectic and appealing enough to seriously consider attending next year. In the way of resources for the next few days, you may want to make use of the administration’s official schedule for the weekend or the WesAdmits 2017 facebook page for accepted students. You may also want to check out the “WesFest” tag on Wesleying, a student-run blog that covers student life on and around campus (which I should mention I write for; sorry if this sounds like a cheap plug).

WesFest runs from today, Wednesday, through Friday, April 19th, and you should feel free to do roam campus as you feel best while you’re here. If you don’t mind, though, and you have the time, I think that you should seriously consider staying for Saturday, 4/20, which is Zonker Harris Day, an annual student-organized celebration which typically takes place during WesFest. If you do, you’ll get a better picture of what life at Wesleyan — social, academic, and beyond — is actually like, which will help you make a more informed decision about your future in higher education. Interested? Click past the jump for some more information.

Continue reading →

FEATURED
MGMT Releases Cassingle “Alien Days” for 4-20/Zonker Harris/Record Store Day

MGMT-Alien-Days

The first single off of the hard-to-understand third LP of a band with a hard-to-pronounce name was released today— in the form of a cassette tape. We get it, guys, the ’90s were a cool time, but stop trying to make the cassingle happen. It’s not going to happen.

MGMT, that completely obscure duo by Andrew VanWyngarden ’05 and Ben Goldwasser ’05, wanted to celebrate 4/20 Zonker Harris Day Record Store Day by putting out a limited edition casette single (and also online, for those who sold their tape deck a long time ago) for “Alien Days,” which would hopefully revitalize the struggling independent record stores/the record industry as a whole. Still not as weird as that time that fellow psychedelic weirdos The Flaming Lips put out a single inside an edible gummy skull. At least they have something to aspire to.

According to VanWyngarden in an interview with Rolling Stone, “Alien Days” is “about that feeling when a parasitic alien is in your head, controlling things.” According to music blog Consequence of Sound, the tune is the band’s “latest love letter to David Bowie.” According to some anonymous sources on Foss Hill, it’s like, pretty cool, man, but I dunno if I really get it, you know?