Headliner, Adrian Marcel, gets the crowd hype with his single “2AM.”
ASI adds flavor to Al Fresco festival
October 2, 2014
A climax of 600 students gathered in the walkway by the Arts and Education building for the 26th Annual Al Fresco Festival.
With over 100 clubs and organization booths, Al Fresco is the largest orientation event at California State University, East Bay.
This is the one stop shop for all freshman and transfer students. Students receive numerous amounts of resources and information three hour period while enjoying free food, games, giveaways and the highlight, live entertainment.
Associated Students Incorporated is known for their concert events and the artists they bring. This year, Program Coordinator Marc Cochran decided to join forces with Student Life and Leadership Director Marguerite Hinrichs by bringing key artists, guaranteed to draw the student crowd.
Recently, Vice President of Student Affairs Stan Hebert expressed to Cochran the desire to have more collaborative events on campus. Cochran granted this request without losing sight of who the events are for. “If we were gonna bring East Bay back to the collaborative effort, I wanted to choose artists with the campus in mind,” said Cochran.
The stage was shared with CSUEB student performers students Megan Pineda and Braxy.
Southern California band, The Big Bang kicked off the event with an indie soul set. Later, Oakland natives Los Rakas hit the stage followed by the event’s headliner, Adrian Marcel, also an Oakland native.
“I chose to open with an eclectic multicultural band. Then, we threw in the Latin Hip Hop.” He continued, “Los Rakas that brought the young energy, diversity and was also bilingual. Adrian Marcel is an up and coming R&B artist right here in East Bay’s backyard. If we can’t celebrate our own who else will do it,” said Cochran.
This year’s turnout was larger than the previous year. Cochran says that ASI is excited about more collaborations with various campus departments in the future.
