Students from around the nation will flood West Campus for the 85th annual RoundUp event this weekend — and the Interfraternity Council is hoping all of them will be college students. This year, the Council tightened the event’s attendance policy to discourage high schoolers from trying to attend.
RoundUp is a weekend-long event hosted by the Greek community where fraternities traditionally host parties with big name performers, and sororities host food-based events to profit their philanthropies.
This year is no exception, and several parties will feature performers such as Riff Raff, Tyga, Travis Porter and Cherub.
“It’s all the big-name performers that you wouldn’t expect to come to a college party, but Tyga and all these other people are going to come,” advertising sophomore Celina Gimang said. “It will be cool just to get to see them for free, especially for girls since we don’t have to pay for the wrist bands.”
In previous years, high school students have flocked to RoundUp for a chance to experience college life, but the Interfraternity Council, which regulates the event, has increased restrictions to keep the events limited to college students.
General admission wristbands are available free to all UT students who show their student IDs. Some events require specific wristbands, and men usually have to pay to get into the weekend’s events.
This year, all non-UT students will be required to pay $10 for their wristbands, in addition to showing an official college ID. The IFC also changed its wristband
distribution system.
“Instead of having certain locations at certain times, we’re having all locations from certain hours, so we’re more spread out,” said Yuriy Dovzhansky, finance and Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies senior. “That kind of makes the lines shorter than they were last year. And the average wait time is about seven minutes, and, last year, it was a lot crazier.”
Dovzhansky, who helped coordinate wristband distribution, said the Council will cap non-UT students at 20 percent of RoundUp attendees.
Despite having to wait in line to get her wristband, geology sophomore Chloe Bell said she is excited for the big crowds and day-long events in West Campus.
“[Last year], I saw everyone walking around with their fanny packs and big tank tops — like, when else can you walk around wearing that kind of crap other than RoundUp — so I just thought might as well,” Bell said. “Everyone looked like they were having a good time last year, and then you see the pictures and you’re like, ‘Damn, should have gone.’”
