Common Ground Hosts Seventh-Annual Earth Jam Despite Rain

Plymouth State held its seventh-annual Earth Jam festival on Sat. Apr., 26.

Earth Jam, hosted by PSU's-own Common Ground, is an annual solar-powered music and arts festival that runs all day and features performances from local student bands, as well as booths promoting eco-friendly cosmetics and clothing for sale by local vendors and student organizations.

The festival runs every year in celebration of Earth Day, which fell on Tues., Apr. 22. This year's festival had the unique addition of running alongside the Medieval Renaissance Forum. This was also the first time the festival has occurred inside due to inclement weather.

"We had a rain date and a plan of what to do [in the case of bad weather] so we just shifted gears and moved inside," said Sam Durfee, President of Common Ground. "We were very grateful. Kerry Keating really helped us with [the] changes. On Wednesday, when I'd realized the weather was going to be terrible, I was really stressing because this was the first time in seven years we've had to go inside, and I kept thinking to myself, "why now?" But when I realized what the set up was going to be, we just embraced it and it worked out great."

Earth Jam featured a stellar lineup of student bands this year, including Black Oakes, Amulus, Super Fun, Elephant, Harsh Armadillo, The Stop Tito Collective, and Roots of Creation. The local talent is often the driving factor of student attendance.

"The vendors are great and everything's awesome, but I love the music that comes later. The energy's really great. As the day progresses, the music [becomes] the focus. All the bands are great. We really appreciate their effort," said Durfee.

"We hadn't practiced in a while, so it was kind of short notice," said Zach Stein, Senior and drummer of Amulus.

Despite this and the rainy weather, however, the rest of the band didn't sound too worried about their set.

"It went swimmingly," said Nate Weaver, lead guitarist and backup vocalist.

"It was fun... for a rainy Saturday," said Stein.

"If it were outside we would have been able to pull in a larger crowd, but you can't really control the weather," said Ryan McCarthy, bassist.

Although facing rainy weather, Sam Durfee and his team were able to continue PSU and Common Ground's tradition of running Earth Jam, while simultaneously maintaining high spirits.