Packapalooza - NCSU, Raleigh, NC

Delaney Taylor

Aug 18, 2017

My husband Stephen and I moved to Raleigh, NC primarily so he could attend graduate school at North Carolina State University. At the beginning of every school year, NC State hold’s a huge fair called “Packapalooza” to celebrate and acquaint the new and returning members of the student body, and it's no small affair.

The entire length of North Campus along Hillsborough Street (and sometimes beyond) gets completely shut down in the wake of clubs, booths, and the local restaurants feeding students with free food fare. From the Belltower to Dan Allen Road, there are concerts and activities from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Burgeoning rappers, R&B and folk artists project from multiple stages over the crowds all afternoon and evening until the capstone performance from headliners like this year’s the Spin Doctors.

Thousands of people mill through the rows of white tents and wittily-named food trucks. Aerial dancers and flame-throwing hula-hoopers twirl to the beat of a cowbell as a local painter captures the sprawl of the activities. People who paint faces are positioned over here, power-tools and shop benches are set up over there. Door-frames with well-wishes that will be sent to build homes in impoverished areas are fastened to the ground and the smell of sharpies and new wood mingles with Mediterranean meats and mango-lemonade. You can pen your bucket list on a giant chalkboard, you can climb a rock wall over four stories high, or flush yourself down the “Hurricane” water slide. Then, a literal red sea parts as the NCSU Marching Band plods and pounds through the street, trumpets screeching, bass drums gleaming under the bright red banner “Welcome to Packapalooza.”

My favorite part though, since I come from Scottish clans on both sides, was by far the Piping Band and the bleat of bagpipes as they hummed into a chorus of highland harmonies. And just behind them comes the Parade of Flags where a myriad of countries unfurls their colors, each represented by students of the foreign nationalities. I love seeing the colorful costumes displayed intermixed with people who speak three languages but dress like me; the diverse lifeblood of NC State is perhaps one of my favorite parts of the school. I can live in a single cul-de-sac and meet neighbors from Dubai to Delaware, Mexico to Morrisville, and I love it.

Whether you’re Wolfpack or not, Packapalooza is a local marker that a new year has begun; it’s a celebration of a shared human desire for discovery. And for those of you who chose NC State this year, I advise you: Choose your love, love what you choose. May you "think and do" much in the year to come.