Thousands of college students from all over the Philadelphia area flocked to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway Saturday for the annual Campus Philly Kick-Off.
Designed to entice students to engage themselves in the community and stay in Philadelphia after they graduate, the event featured free admission to 11 Philadelphia museums, dozens of live performances, plenty of freebies for cash-starved students and a free concert featuring the rapper E. Ness and the punk rock band Something Corporate.
For the many students in attendance, the Something Corporate concert initially drew them to the event.
"We came here to see Something Corporate, but we didn't know there was so much else going on," College freshman Jasmine Fournier said.
In addition to the free concerts, students could watch skateboarding tricks and professional breakdancers, listen to DJs or eat a meal from a myriad of vendors. In addition, Vitamin Water and Sunkist orange soda were distributed for free.
The breakdancing exhibit drew large crowds, as onlookers watched scantily clad dancers spin on their heads and dance on elevated platforms. Audience members also had the chance to join in and showcase their own skills.
The skateboarding park was also popular with students. Some even brought their own boards and tried out the course themselves.
The diverse events seemed to attract an accordingly diverse crowd. "They're doing a lot more than they did last year," College sophomore Shelly Lawes said. "They are trying to get different [types] of people here."
Kaitlyn White, a sophomore at Temple University, was more interested in visiting the museums. "My favorite today was the Franklin Institute," she said.
The Kick-Off began at 10 a.m. and concluded when Something Corporate's hour-and-a-half performance ended just before 7 p.m. The exhibits and stages covered the entire parkway from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to Logan Square.
Campus Philly Kick-Off is run each year by Campus Philly, a municipal nonprofit organization that aims to involve area students in the Philadelphia community and provide jobs for them in the city once they graduate.
Museums open to students included the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Franklin Institute Science Museum and the Rodin Museum, among others.
