After two years of COVID-19 restrictions on school-wide gatherings, Bates Campus Life held the large-scale event Bateschella to welcome students back to campus on Saturday September 17.  According to Bates Engage, 1108 tickets were reserved by Bates students.

The event featured professional performers Alto Moon and Prinze George, as well as student musicians Fat Dog and the Strangers, Uche Anyanwu ’25 and DJ sets by DJ Hanzo. 

“We wanted to find a band that could get folks up on their feet and having fun,” Assistant Dean of Students for Campus Life Nick Dressler said. 

A collaboration between Campus Life and the Bates Musicians’ Union, Bateschella also featured the food truck, Pinky D’s Poutine, and outdoor activities such as a unicorn bull ride, bungee run, ax throwing, giant slide, bounce house, and a photo booth.

After attending the event, some students felt that the ax throwing was falsely advertised. 

“I didn’t like [that] it was fake ax throwing,” James Hillers ’26 said.

“He wanted a real ax,” his friend Kyra Silverstein ’26 added.

The first musical performance was by Prinze George, with band members Kenny Grimm, Naomi Almquist and Isabelle De Leon. Originally from Prince George’s County, Maryland, Prinze George now has 108,951 monthly listeners on Spotify and had their single “Take Off” featured on the soundtrack of Netflix’s Never Have I Ever.

Bates Musicians’ Union member Uche Anyanwu ’25 was one of the last performers of the night. 

“A lot of us on the floor came out to support Uche,” Annie Robinson ’26, a freshman in Anyanwu’s JA group, said. “It was really exciting, we got to be… front row… He even took my cowboy hat at one point… it was really fun, I enjoyed it.”

“The food was… top notch,” Hillers said, confessing to having had five or six slices of pizza.  

“If they had more activities, I think more people would have shown up… people saw that there wasn’t that much to do and then left without going,” Grace Thomas ’26 said.

The Bates Student reached out to several upperclassmen and received no comment.  

Whether or not this will be a recurring event is based entirely on the student response. According to Dressler, if Campus Life is met with a positive reaction, Bateschella could find itself on the roster of annual events like the Gala and Winter Carnival.