Tom Dotan vies between keeping in pitch for his a cappella group and making sure he finds -- and consumes -- his Picnic Day junk food. (Karin Higgins/UC Davis photo)
In this Spotlight
- Spotlight home
- It's a whole day of Earth-friendly consciousness
- Tom pipes up for the good, the bad and the out of tune — and Twinkies
- Erin gives a family-centered guide to the parade, free stuff and dogs
- Anna dishes out the goods on UC Davis' fashion and tie-dyeing scenes
- Adhanet offers a tour of art galleries — with a big plus: student work
Tom pipes up for the good, the bad and the out of tune — and Twinkies
Picnic Day may mean many things to many different people. For some, it's the animal debauchery: wiener dog races, cockroach races, the parade. Others go for the bevy of freebie stations that dot the campus.
There's a chemistry show, a fashion show, various talent shows concocted by the Greek houses. It's also a fair, so the face-painting, bike riding and animal-innards petting are a must.
And the fair food. Oh the fair food. More on that later, because in my case, these events all happen off-stage. My Picnic Day isn't one of watching but of performing.
I am a member of one of UC Davis's very own co-ed a cappella groups, The Liquid Hotplates — I joined as a freshman and it took over my life; it's a too-familiar tale. College a cappella groups are infamous for performing anywhere for little to no money (and singing all the way en route).
It is by no means a stretch for the average group to find itself breaking out into song at a restaurant, a museum exhibit, a gift shop, a police precinct- and all while a gawking crowd looks on.
Needless to say, a cappella groups perform a lot, but rising above all the other opportunities, show of shows, the great a cappellooza, is Picnic Day.
Musical wonderland
All of Davis' a cappella groups — five at last count — plus the scads of other student/non-students music groups use the 50,000 Picnic Day attendees milling around as potential audience members in one of their largest gigs of the year. Significant players in Davis's a cappella music scene, other then ourselves, are The Lounge Lizards, also co-ed, and the all-female group The Spokes.
Everyone in The Liquid Hotplates have performed at Picnic Day since our group's inception, and will be no different this time around. And we're just a small part of the great music festival that is Picnic Day.
On an average Picnic Day, there are at least seven performance stages set up around campus that feature music acts continuously from morning until late afternoon. Perennial favorites are the Taiko Dan Japanese Drummers, the hip-hop dancing groups and the Irish Fiddler.
KDVS, UC Davis' very own beautifully esoteric student radio station, has had its own stage off and on throughout the years, hosting a local rock-band competition that seems to be a Mecca for the area's emo-hipsters.
DJs spinning records outdoors
Competition or not, the station always has a table not too far from the Quad where on-air DJs broadcast live and spin records. For the DJs, it's a nice retreat from the underground studio bunker in Lower Freeborn where they normally work, and for anybody who enjoys music only heard on the lower end of the FM dial, this is the place to be.
I've heard chilling rumors from time to time about the existence of a competition involving marching bands, but I choose not to believe them. It defies the boundaries of logic and decency that more than one university marching band would be allowed to congregate in the same place.
The entire Picnic Day event from what I understand is a real whirlwind for the marching bands, especially UC Davis' resident Band-uh. They have to weather weeks of intense rehearsals, the morning Picnic Day Parade through downtown, and this so-called competition found at Lake Spafford, where there are a lot of ducks and geese, normally. Tragic.
But no matter. The gamut of music styles on the stages runs from world music to Elvis impersonators to reggae — really you'd be hard pressed to find a more diverse and freer music festival anywhere in the country.
Everything that I've mentioned here takes place on a regular basis at Picnic Day, but I'll tell you now there is no way you can catch it all. Your best bet is to grab an Entertainment Schedule (online or in The Aggie) and scope out which acts seem to suit you.
Insider info-for performers and the audience
Though it's difficult to manage, I've been able to see most of these acts over my three years attending Picnic Day. As every Davis performer knows, there are two immutable truths about the Day:
- It always rains the night beforehand, which sends a group into an unnecessary, last-second frenzy figuring out how to rework the acts to fit on the indoor stage. After the sleepless night worrying how the altered choreography for the Garth Brooks medley will play in Freeborn Hall, you wake up to the most beautiful April day.
- If you're performing, chances are you're going to be running from place to place and expending great energy though stress, to make sure that every little piece of your act will run perfectly in your allotted 20 minutes. In an ensemble a cappella group, that stress comes in the form of making last-second phone calls to group members to ensure they know when the pre-show warm-up is, knowing who has the pitch pipe and how many background mics we should have, because last time your overly honest friend who was in the audience complained that the tenors couldn't be heard in the Maroon 5 medley. Let's just say, it is not exactly the right mood to be in so as to best enjoy musical eclecticism — even for a music major.
Likewise two central bits of advice for any audience member:
- Try something that you wouldn't normally go for. It's a free show, so why not try to find out there's a small part of you that digs jazz flute, trip-hop or Celtic folk songs. The worst thing that happens is you move on to another show. The best thing that happens is that you find a new genre of music to fall in love with and at the same time support a local hard working independent artist.
- Be patient through any technical problems, and there WILL be technical problems. The poor overworked and understaffed A/V engineers on Picnic Day have a hard time keeping up with all the specific demands that the wide variety of musicians require. Vocal mics are often not turned up enough, bass amps are too loud, and feedback is way more than just a comment card. Just chill out, true artistry always pulls through. Plus, it's a free show, whaddaya whinin' about?
About the food…
But OK, much to the chagrin of artists the world over nobody can subsist on just music alone, and chances are you'll get a bit hungry as the day wears on. Taking a break from the band watching is never a bad idea, especially if it means getting to indulge in the fair food stands that abound.
Come on, just because we live in California and Davis happens to be an agricultural powerhouse does not mean you should avoid food that has been pumped with so many preservatives that it can outlive us all.
Go for the funnel cake or the churro or that interestingly shaped deep-fried debris, it's all part of the true Picnic day experience. And make sure to go before or after the typical 12-2 p.m. food rush. The lines are killers; listen to some music to bide your time.
Deep-fried Twinkies and Oreos
My personal favorite food center is the infamous deep-fried Twinkie and Oreo stand, which wasn't around last year but the rumor mill tells me could be back this time. The battering and frying of a Twinkie, a food that is normally inedible, manages to at once make the outside crispy and flakey, while the inside warm and gooey.
Junk food? HA! There are many ways to judge a food beyond such superficial gauges such as nutritional value or pronounceablilty of ingredients. Just as they taught me in kindergarten, it's what's inside that counts.
Perhaps I may be irrational in my defense of the deep-fried Twinkie (I grew up in and around Berkeley and anything that doesn't include bean-curd is an exotic delicacy) but Picnic Day is a day of trying something out of the ordinary and that's what I've done.
This Picnic Day promises to be a much lower key affair, at least for me. Three years of running the gauntlet for an a cappella group has afforded me the right to be chill in my final Day as a student.
Oh I'm still in the a cappella group — it's musical directors and Supreme Court justices that both serve life appointments — but my reduced role and senior status has given me a bit more perspective on the college universe that abounds, marching bands, Elvis impersonators and all.
If you're coming to Picnic Day this year, feel free to come on by and talk to me, ask me for a recommendation of which shows to check out. I'll be the one roaming from music stage to music stage, with a deep-fried Twinkie in hand, trying to take it all in one last time.