‘Kirkchella’ was a night of success for the University Ministry, where a radiance of love, spirit, music and acoustic vibrations flowed throughout the night.
The atmosphere was very uplifting, positive and energetic from start to finish. Students were dancing and singing along while enjoying iced coffee, cookies and muffins under the hanging lights. The name for the event came from the idea of having a multi-artist concert, similar to Coachella’s summerly event in California. Lucas Nocera, the driving force of Kirkchella and the Music Minister of University Ministry at Saint Leo University, states that originally being a cookout, “as we got closer, not as a lack of planning, we just thought the idea of you know, the acoustic coffee shop vibe would be a good idea, so we went with that.”
The inspiration behind this concert was for “people to come and hang out, and relax and hear some cool music while getting some coffee.” The first Kirkchella had positive feedback from the attendees about the “coffee acoustic vibe.” When asked about similar future events, Lucas said “absolutely, yeah! We have already talked about [it], [that]there will be another ‘Kirkchella’.”
Despite the relocation of the event from Kirk Lawn to under the Student Activities Building arc due to the possibility of rain, it didn’t stop the momentum. This change allowed for lights to hang from the walls and ceiling, creating a beautiful ambiance in the night. Edward Gemma Jr., one of the artists, states it as “one of the cool things about the spot that we were in. The natural echo that we had created that really, really nice sound. And so, ultimately it ended working out in the end.” Approached by Lucas at the end of last semester about the idea of hosting a concert, Edward hopes that this gets University Ministry’s name out there, the people, who they are and what they do. The University Ministry is the spiritual part of Saint Leo University, and their community is filled with faith, fun and a very friendly environment that anyone can enjoy and be a part of. He thinks that hosting events such as Kirkchella can definitely get them out and allow for newcomers to meet the people of the community, saying “this is what we’re about, come say hi.” One feature that could be added in the future is having more artists perform. As Eddie put it, “as [it]grows, we’ll get kids that are freshman, that we may not know have some kind of musical talent, and ask ‘hey, this is coming next year, how do I become a part of it?’ and it’ll grow from there.” Being the first of its kind, it’s reasonable why only a few artists performed, but that doesn’t mean it affected the quality in any way.
The attendees were able to take advantage of free food and communion with each other in an area other than the Abbey. Credit: Christian Silva
Keegan Abreu, a recent graduate from the 3+1 computer science and cybersecurity program, also has some ideas about school-wide events. Keegan and Edward have been playing together for a while and he couldn’t pass out on the opportunity to play at Kirkchella. He was contacted by Edward telling him about “this thing coming up with the Ministry, [that he]needs a guitarist.” He believes that there should be more musical events on campus, that although there are he still feels that its “very seldom and its only once in a while,” with the University “[stressing]a lot on sporting, [that]anyone who has a sports ability or talent can definitely shine as they’re big on sports [like]basketball, soccer and lacrosse.” He is eager for Kirkchella to continue forward, seeing it as strong way for music driven talented students to shine in.
Not only are there future events in motion, but Lucas wants to have the events be greater. “I would really like to broaden it and have it be a bigger event like maybe getting Student Activities involved, or anything like that just to have it at a grander scale, more artists, longer time frame, to have it more of a full night event…to have great music and community.” Everyone seems to agree and hope is that it becomes a yearly event to “build it up along the next few years.” If you missed out on this spectacular event, you can always go to DeChantal Hall, Room 105 where University Ministry is located, to check up on their future events.
