The inaugural C.U. Downtown Event, featuring live music and entertainment by student performance groups, will welcome new Cornellians to the Ithaca Commons on Saturday.
C.U. Downtown will run from noon until 4:30 pm, and there will be food, tours, raffles, a scavenger hunt, and opportunities to take advantage of discounts at the local businesses, according to a press release.
The event will feature a non-stop schedule of music and entertainment from about 20 Cornell student groups, including C.U. Jazz, Last Call, The Touchstones and Raas, according to Margherita Fabrizio, Director of Tatkon Center for First-Year Students.
“These are jaw-dropping acts and it’s fun and amazing to see these high-energy performers, who are also full-time students” Fabrizio said.
The event’s goal is to encourage students to take advantage of opportunities off-campus, and to realize all that Ithaca has to offer, according to the press release.
Fabrizio proposed the event last winter to the Downtown Ithaca Alliance which, she said, “embraced it enthusiastically.”
Fabrizio and the DIA hope it will be a way to bring the Cornell and Ithaca communities closer together.
“I have always been interested in better connecting Cornell with the City of Ithaca and thought for a long time that we could do a better job orienting students to the off campus community,” Fabrizio said.
Stressing the proximity of the rest of Ithaca to Cornell, she added, “I would like students to realize downtown Ithaca is a short walk or bus ride away and that being off campus can provide a much needed respite from the stress of student life.”
C.U. Downtown is open to new and returning students, staff, faculty, and the greater Ithaca community. It is organized by Carol Tatkon Center, in partnership with the Ithaca Downtown Alliance and Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit.