The night started off slow, lonely, and low in energy; not one student at Lobos Pub at Sonoma State wanted to step up and perform their karaoke bit to kick off the night. That is, until Devin, a first-year student, and his friend began to sing a song called “I miss you,” injecting the audience with a heightened sense of engagement, appreciation and the drive to “sing the night away” that would turn the night on its head. 

The event kicked off at Lobo’s karaoke night at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 7, but, in atypical fashion, students did not start singing for a while thereafter. As most of the students that showed up were not exactly engaged with the idea of singing in front of people, it was readily clear that they needed an ice breaker. Then entered Devin, a fellow student who had just been at the recreational center next to Lobos, hearing through his friend that there was going to be karaoke.  In a seemingly instantaneous way, the freshman would break apart the awkwardness running through the Lobos Pub, joining his friends along the way. 

‘Late night at Lobos: karaoke’, has been an event for some time now, according to Vida Mina Davarpanah, one of the hosts of the event. Davarpanah said, “I know we’ve had it since I was a freshman, (considering she is now a senior at SSU) so it’s been at least four years.” 

Friday nights at Lobos pub have showcased a wide array of events over the years, with karaoke night often being the prime event to come and meet new peers, eat and enjoy an overall fun experience.

“It’s a great time. I think it’s great to just get people out of their houses, you know, and just connect with the campus; connect with the community;  And just do something fun for the night,” Davarpanah said. Students that were not participating in the Friday night event initially would hear the songs that Devin and his peers were singing, faintly singing and lightly cheering for them in turn. From there, as is the case with a vast majority of Late Night at Lobos events, the energy level was palpable.  

Some students at the event were there because Lobos is the only place on campus that serves food on Friday nights, not knowing that the karaoke event was set to happen all the while. Among them, Cameron Bailey, a second-year student, came in and ordered some food. While Bailey was not participating in the event, he did share some ideas as to how people that are in charge of promoting the events could do a better job.

“I thought that the Smash Bros. event was pretty well advertised because they have the banner above the rec center and it’s part of the slide show in front of the plaza, but something like this (karaoke night) could be put up on the screen at least with recordings of people; a compilation of recordings, like this,” Bailey said, pointing at the participants. Bailey reasoned that past videos of students having fun at karaoke night, shown as a compilation of videos where people are singing, eating and laughing, would be a great marketing strategy for more students to come out. 

Although Bailey believed he had a great idea, Davarpanah felt otherwise in terms of failure to generate a deal of event awareness, saying that these kinds of events are being promoted, but people are not paying much attention to them. 

“Well I know Seawolf Living sends out newsletters every week with a list of events. So if people, you know, actually read their emails and look at flyers and stuff and look at the TVs (where the events are posted),” she added, “maybe there would be more student participation.”   

“You’re going to have to want to be involved and want to hear what’s going on and I think they (SSU students) could be more involved, for sure; Especially, I hear that there ‘is not a lot of stuff going on’ but I’m like, ‘there is’ if you just step out of your house, you’ll see that there’s a lot going on,” said Davarpanah. In noting that she was not simply blaming students for lack of participation, Davarpanah pointed to the idea that students were probably just shy and, if a similar issue arises in the future, simply need one person to step up and get it started.