Attendance at this year’s Moonlight Breakfast, sponsored by QU After Dark, dropped after was moved from finals weekend to May Weekend.
In previous years, about 300 people attended the event, but this year about 130 students came to enjoy the free pancakes, cereals, eggs and more on Saturday, April 26.
Moonlight Breakfast is QUAD’s most popular event each semester, Performance Chair Carmine Caruso said.
“I just think that [the event is] really a hit among everyone,” Caruso said. “This in particular just has a really good reputation and people like getting breakfast food at this time.”
In past semesters, Moonlight Breakfast has been held finals weekend. Caruso said he would prefer to have the event finals weekend, but Student Center and Campus Life choose which days QUAD will program.
“It’s probably just because [Student Center and Campus Life] didn’t want to distract anybody [from studying] so they figured we’d put it at the very end on this weekend and next weekend is clear,” he said.
Caruso said if shuttles continue to run during future May Weekends, Student Center and Campus Life should consider moving Moonlight Breakfast back to finals weekend.
Promotion Chair Matt Capece said moving Moonlight Breakfast back to the weekend before finals would increase attendance.
“It’s more successful [finals weekend] because more people are even lower on their meal plans,” Capece said. “They’re stressed out with finals, they’re generally not out and about the town and they think ‘oh, I could spare an hour to go out and relax.’”
Freshman Jess Shapiro said the event should always be held the weekend before finals.
“It explains why there wasn’t as big of a turnout, but I think that regardless it was a fun event for whoever attended,” Shapiro said. “You can’t go wrong with free food.”
Capece said multiple factors led to a lower turnout this semester.
“I think the weekend being ‘May Weekend’ has an impact,” he said. “But it’s not only that, it’s a combination of terrible weather, May Weekend, Toad’s, formal for ZBT.”
Freshman John DeLuca said the rain may have affected Moonlight Breakfast’s attendance.
“Maybe if the weather was nicer there’d be more people, but definitely if it was next weekend there would be a lot more people,” DeLuca said.
Though Shapiro and DeLuca agreed Moonlight Breakfasts should be the last weekend of the semester, they said they enjoyed the event.
“It was fun, I got to hang out with some friends,” DeLuca said. “Free food and meeting up with friends – you can’t go wrong.”
Capece believes attending the Moonlight Breakfast is a great way to end the school year before finals start.
“It’s 100 percent just an easy way to kill time and relax and get free food,” Capece said. “The reason we have Moonlight Breakfast is as a good sendoff to the end of the year, to give back to the students.”
Unlike most QUAD events, Caruso said Moonlight Breakfast is appealing to everyone on campus.
“Usually we program for people who want the alternative to drinking and clubbing, but this is an event we kind of have for everybody and even the people who usually [go out] will come to this,” Caruso said.
