Starting this article was difficult for me because I was unable to come up with the proper words to describe this experience (also I am a new Odyssey contributor so I am not quite accustomed to all this yet) UC Riverside's Associated Students Program Board was able to provide. Their ability to secure big name artists such as Trey Songz and DJ Snake was absolutely amazing. I cannot lie. I found this event so enjoyable and memorable. For events such as music festivals, people generally pre-game to have more enjoyable time, and did seem like there were students who had. Regardless, UCR put on a great concert. Both stages were very well placed and easy to access. The walk from one stage to the other was less than a couple yards and the music, surprisingly enough, did not compete from the two stages. The artists were able to get their respective crowds to vibe with them regardless if the students liked the music. It was the atmosphere and the energy that got people to start dancing. The speakers worked beautifully. Both stages had been set up with multiple screens to displayed videos behind the artists as they performed. The stage with mostly EDM artists consisted of lasers and the way the lasers danced across the crowd in harmony with the music and the lights made the event so much more memorable. Virtually everyone in the crowd were happy and cheering on the DJs.
The day after the concert, a friend of mine (I will not disclose his name out of respect of his privacy) had told me that a girl had been dancing in front of him and seemed like that she wanted him to dance with her. Out of respect of the girl he did not put his arms around her and dance with due to his fear of his actions being viewed as sexual harassment. This is what I told him: Friend, what he should've done was step forward a little more and see if she continued to dance with him, and if so, consider that as the green light to approach the girl. If she felt uncomfortable, she could've shrugged him off. He would then remove his arms and continue enjoying the concert. No harm done. The two of them would have went back to enjoying the music festival and the artists as they each had initially planned, taking in all the lights and sounds. The awkwardness would have disappeared as fast as the next song being played on the artist's set. That is my opinion and that is simply how I would approach the situation. Is my opinion and solution to this scenario wrong? Maybe, but I reiterate that it is simply my opinion. You can go do whatever you want to do. I'm sure there were plenty of guys in the crowd who were in similar situations. I, myself, was in a similar situation.
A major part of why I enjoyed this event was the group of friends I had went with. We all danced a lot at Spring Splash and during all that dancing, about 90 percent of the time I was dancing with one particular friend in the group. I viewed the situation and experienced multiple moments where I was extremely tempted to wrap my arms around and dance more intimately with her. I considered the fact that my other friend was dancing to my right. He and our friend dancing in front of me were practically the best of friends, and so out of respect for him and out of respect for her I chose not to and simply danced with her with my arms raised up in the air. And that's what I'm trying to get at: reading the situation. That's the advice I gave to my friend and the advice I give to anyone who reads this. If you don't like my advice, then you don't have to care for what I have to say since it's just an opinion. And my opinion is that UCR's 2016 Spring Splash was beyond expectation. The music festival assaulted your senses various ways. The lights and lasers penetrated your eyes and filled them with bright colors. The music became absorbed into your ears until it was the only thing you could hear. The sensation of dancing around friends put your body at peace. Your entire body soaked up the good vibrations and euphoric emotions to burn a memory into your subconscious so the experience would be everlasting.
