On October 6th, 2017, students at Grand Canyon University lined up in a line that wrapped around half of the school. Some dedicated students even grabbed tents and camped out in front of the GCU Arena the night before. What for you ask? Well, for Midnight Madness of course! Midnight Madness is the huge themed pep rally that introduces the students to the men's and women's basketball teams while also offering entertainment from the dance team, cheer team, and the pep band.
Like I mentioned earlier, Midnight Madness is always themed. This year, the theme was "Take What's Yours" with a Pirates of the Caribbean twist. Personally, I think the theme should have been "Lopes of the Caribbean" but that's okay, just a missed opportunity.
Those of you who stood in line waiting for the arena doors to open, you more than likely saw people who actually dressed up for the event. While some of the those people were a part of theatre, the majority of these people were your very own GCU Pep Band. You see, the pep band knew the theme at least a month in advance and took the time to dress accordingly.
Look familiar? You probably saw a lot of us walking around near the arena. The Pep Band loves Midnight Madness! We love being in the environment and being able to play for the parents and students and most of all, we love dressing up for it!
Just in case you students didn't notice, because you guys were so hyped up yourselves, but if you looked over at the Pep Band, it was a constant dance party over in that section. Speaking personally, I get so into the events that I go to so, if music comes on, you better believe that I am going to dance my heart out and the same goes with the rest of the members of the Pep Band as well. We definitely put the "pep" in Pep Band!
To go a little behind the scenes, the Pep Band rehearsed the Midnight Madness music basically since the second week of school. The amount of effort that goes in to making sure that the music is perfect is a lot, especially since our Midnight Madness music is actually written out and composed by one of our own. On top of that, when it comes to the week of Midnight Madness, we always have dress rehearsals with everybody else and boy are they long. By long, I mean 6 hours long. Do you know how many runs of Midnight Madness can be accomplished in 6 hours? Answer: A lot. So, we already knew everything going on when we walked into the actual event but did you see us being bored? No, like I said earlier, we were a party over there and it will always be that way throughout the basketball season. Why? We love basketball!
Standing up in the stands where we can see every angle of the arena, and being able to watch not only the game, dance team, and cheer team, but also the silly things that you students do when you think no one is looking are probably some of the most fun things about being at Midnight Madness and basketball games. Along with that is, of course, being able to dance our hearts out and being able to cheer on our school. I speak for the Pep Band when I say that we are looking forward to the basketball season and already looking forward to the next Midnight Madness.
We will see you soon Lopes!