Breeze Perspectives: Oh little town of Harrisonburg, what is there to do?

As students, many of us face the mundane monotony of college life: sleep, school, work and then the weekend. With the weekend comes the freedom from classes given to us two days out of the seemingly endless week of classes.

So how do we spend these weekends, these escapes from classes and work? Many of us go to parties, but what else do we do? That’s where the problem lies. How many of you have asked your friends “What do you want to do tonight?” and how many of you had gotten the response that Mark, Matt, Caitlin or any other one of your friends is having a party?

While partying is fun, after a while it gets boring and repetitive just like the school week itself. However, trying to escape the party scene is not as easy as you may think, especially in Harrisonburg. In a town where there is more farm land than entertainment, we have few weekend alternatives for partying. With farms outnumbering buildings and bars being the more numerous and frequently visited locations, there are hardly any activities other than drinking.

Considering most JMU students don’t hail from Harrisonburg and many of our homes are in big cities it is only sensible that there are other options for us on the weekends. We should be able to find alternatives other than drinking and partying.  I know drinking and partying are not our only options, but going to the movies, bowling or another equally lame idea only entertains you so much. Because of this I propose that Harrisonburg should build a concert venue. I believe that a concert venue or at least a big arena for musicians to play at in Harrisonburg would give us another source of entertainment. 

I know JMU offers a big concert every year on campus yet one concert can hardly fulfill all of our diverse tastes in music.  Also many small concerts occur on campus and off campus in locations such as bars and even some parties. The issue is that these concerts only occur every so often and can only hold a certain number of fans; although I do appreciate all of Harrisonburg’s local bands and JMU’s (especially UPB’s) effort to bring concerts to the school.

I think a concert venue would be extremely beneficial to Harrisonburg and to the JMU community. Most importantly it will add another activity for all of Harrisonburg’s residents. Partying should not be the only fun thing we can think to do on the weekends and a venue would definitely fix that.

Emily Taylor is a junior communication studies major.