HAVRE — After two successful years. MSU-Northern in Havre is ready to host the third annual Aurora Borealis Festival on Cowan Field.
The school's men's athletic teams are the "Northern Lights," which is a common nickname for the Aurora Borealis - hence the name of the festival.
“Aurora Borealis is basically our kickoff to the fall semester,” said Emilee Luke, Social Media and Communications Director for MSU-N, “So it invites everybody, meaning students, faculty, staff, anybody in the community, and it's basically just a way to get everybody together.”
This is the third year the school has hosted the festival, after Dean of Students Corey Cop wanted to put an event together after COVID. It was a huge success, and has been growing every year, with an expected attendance of about 300 people.
While the games and food will be fun, the live music just might be more local than you would expect.
The band Velvet Skyline includes three faculty members. Emilee Luke herself plays keyboard, a math professor plays saxophone, and the chair of the arts and sciences college and education professor plays guitar.
Depending on the song, the band will occasionally feature other faculty as well.
“We're stoked to start semester again and I think we've got a lot of new faculty, a lot of just there's a lot of good things happening, so I'm just excited that the semester is here, as busy as we are,” Luke said.
The festival is Tuesday, August 22nd from 5-8pm and is free to the public.
