Miley Cyrus, Calvin and Hobbes, Walter White, Spider Man and various Angry Birds all made appearances at this year’s Stanford Mausoleum party.
The Saturday evening event was themed after the electronic music artist deadmau5. Despite overlapping with the Stanford football game against Oregon State University, the event saw high attendance.
The most prominent feature of this year’s party was the music, mixed by student DJs Dartis Willis ’15 and Ricky Tran ’15. The Junior Class cabinet, which hosted the event, voted to feature the DJs side by side, rather than choosing one over the other.
“I was just so impressed by them,” said Daniel Knapp ’15, junior class co-president. “I think they both went well with the theme, just in totally different ways.”
In keeping with the rave theme, glow sticks were distributed to the first 800 arrivals. The photo booth was a consistent crowd pleaser, with a steady line of more than 20 students at any given time. The event organizers spent a large amount of time and effort into setting up the lighting system that led from the main road to the event, designed to recall raves associated with electronic music.
According to Jacob Dalder ’15, chair of the Mausoleum event, equipment known as Gobo rotators were used in conjunction with colored gels to create a unique light pattern projected into the trees.
A large factor in planning each year’s event is the need to find economical yet effective thematic touches to stay within the budget, which Knapp said the coordinators were able to achieve this year.
“I think funding is always a challenge,” Knapp said. “Pricing goes up and budgets might not, so we have to think creatively, which Jacob by leading the team definitely did.”
The party hit its stride after Stanford wrapped up its 20-12 victory against Oregon State. A Facebook post at 11 p.m. encouraged those who had just finished watching the game to celebrate at the Mausoleum, and the attendance grew.
The event organizers were aware of the potential for students putting themselves in danger due to excessive alcohol consumption. A key part of this safety enforcement occurred at the entrance to the party, with staffers manning the entrance looking for warning signs. Dalder noted that if a student was deemed ineligible to enter the party, the organizers would guarantee the student a safe way to get home and have medics help him or her if necessary.
The Cardinal Nights program, which held an alcohol-free screening of the horror film “The Conjuring” earlier in the evening, also helped to reduce potential drinking issues.
Ideas for increasing attendance while also providing a safe experience for next year are already forming. For instance, Knapp suggested cooperating with other University organizations to add food to the event.
Future partiers may be able to have the best of all worlds by watching the football game while at the event and then transitioning into the party scene. Dalder and Knapp acknowledged that funding for these types of adjustments would be a potential concern.
“We get a lot of funding for the event—and it’s awesome—but we have so many ideas on where to take Maus,” Knapp said. “And I think that these kinds of partnerships could be really helpful, and funding is the way to go.”
Contact Skylar Cohen at skylarc ‘at’ stanford.edu.