Lori Peterkin, assistant director of advancement at the School of Medicine, said the event Friday morning was conceived to celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary and is designed to promote physical activity and positive energy in a non-traditional way.
“The morning rave is sort of a new concept. Raves in general have been associated with a nighttime, drug- and alcohol-type thing,” she said. “There has been a new movement throughout the world that started in big cities like London and Hong Kong, where they have morning raves that have been focused on some form of wellness.”
Peterkin said the morning rave is the culmination of a year’s worth of work promoting health and wellness.
“This is an alternative to going to the gym,” she said. “They can come to one of these events and dance or do yoga.”
Josh Burg, the morning rave’s DJ, said participating in the celebration was a no-brainer.
“I’ve always been into health and fitness myself,” he said. “I think it’s a good way to get the music out there without some of the bad stigma that goes along with it.”
Burg said he expects the event to be a success regardless of the time.
“I imagine I’m going to see a lot of sleepy faces, but I think the music will pick them up pretty immediately,” Burg said. “I expect to see a good amount of heads, but I think they will show up as time moves on.”
Peterkin said registered student groups like sororities and fraternities have extra incentives to attend the celebration – money.
“We’re offering two prizes, a $300 prize and a $200 prize to the group who brings the most people,” she said. “They can win money for their organizations that they can use for leadership training or t-shirts or different things they need for their organizations.”
The event is free to the public and will feature free yoga and chair massages, according to a press release from the School of Medicine. The rave will run from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning at the Health Sciences Center’s Lower Plaza on North Campus.
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Mychal Miltenberger, Scott McCoy and Kyle Lord are students in UNM’s journalism program. This story was written for the Daily Lobo through the school’s New Mexico News Port journalism project.
