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Friday, March 29, 2024
<p>Young the Giant perform for a Rock The Vote concert at Flavet Field</p>

Young the Giant perform for a Rock The Vote concert at Flavet Field

For the last two years, Young the Giant’s “Amerika” has woken Joelle Dorset up every morning.

She’s had the song as her alarm clock ringtone since its release in 2016, she said. As Dorset, a 20-year-old UF psychology junior, walked to Flavet Field with her friends, she hoped they’d play that song.

At about 8:30 p.m., Dorset’s wish was granted with the first song of the set.

Alternative rocks bands Young the Giant and Joywave performed a concert free to the public on Friday to kickoff UF’s civic engagement week. Young The Giant was paid $78,000 and Joywave was paid $20,000 from student activity fees, Student Government Production Chair Andrew Kelly wrote in an email.

Civic engagement week is a voter registration competition among all universities in the state of Florida that begins Monday and ends Friday, said Dylan Santalo, a co-chair of Chomp the Vote.

Santalo said the number of UF students who registered to vote at the event and during civic engagement week will be counted Friday.

Shannon Pinzon, a Chomp the Vote co-chair, said this was the third year UF Chomp the Vote and Student Government Productions partnered for a concert.

“We just want to shift the mindset that students have about what it means to be civically engaged,” Pinzon said. “We really want to promote the fact that voting is your basic right as U.S. citizen, and we really want to engage them in a way that’s more fun.”

Young The Giant lead vocalist, Sameer Gadhia, led the band in a 12-song set. Attendees jumped, screamed, clapped, blew bubbles and hit beach balls into the air during the songs.

When Gadhia clapped, the crowd of thousands clapped. When he waved his arms back and forth in the air, the audience of more than a thousand turned into a sea of waving arms.

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The band also gave their first live performance of their new song “Superposition.” Gadhia thanked everyone for being a source of inspiration for him and the band for the last 10 years and encouraged attendees to keep “voting whichever way you’d like,” he said.

Stephen Michel’s eyes scanned the crowd around him as the next song of the set, “Simplify,” began. He tapped his foot and bobbed his head while he watched the orange stage lights reveal thousands of faces, and a smile flickered across his face.

“With concerts like these, all of these people are never going to be in the same place again,” the 20-year-old biomedical engineering junior said. “So it’s a very unique moment.”

Contact Angela DiMichele at adimichele@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @angdimi

Young the Giant perform for a Rock The Vote concert at Flavet Field

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