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Riverboat held its final college night for the year

October 27, 2016
Lansing resident Addison Brown plays music while partygoers dance on Oct. 26, 2016 onboard the Michigan Princess. Brown, who goes by VADR, was the DJ for the Princess's last all college student night.
Lansing resident Addison Brown plays music while partygoers dance on Oct. 26, 2016 onboard the Michigan Princess. Brown, who goes by VADR, was the DJ for the Princess's last all college student night.

Students celebrated the last Riverboat Halloween College Night, and tickets sold out four days before the event, Michigan Princess Captain Christopher Chamberlain said.

Chamberlain was approximately two years old when his family built the Michigan Princess, which he said is more commonly known as just "Riverboat" on MSU’s campus. Chamberlain said he and his friends started college nights but these events are coming to a close. However, there will still be opportunities for college students to come to the watercraft.

“Basically the people that helped me set this up have graduated or they’re about to graduate and we haven’t really figured out who to pass it along to that would do the promotion end of the event,” he said. “The boat will still be running. We do all kinds of different group events from fraternities and sororities, student organizations, but we don’t really have anybody to promote the college night event for us that we would feel comfortable organizing the event for us.”

Chamberlain said although there will probably only be one more college night during spring semester, the Riverboat does many other events and students are welcome to reserve the boat for their organizations.

For college student events, there are different bar specials like shot and drink specials and there are games oriented for college students, like water pong and giant Jenga, Chamberlain said.

Agribusiness management sophomore Abbie Walkowe has attended the Riverboat Halloween college night the past two years with her friends. She said it is a tradition for her and her friends.

When she first heard about the Riverboat, she said she wasn’t sure what to expect.

“I don’t know what I pictured,” she said. “You picture like a smaller boat, but this is big. It’s kind of like a smaller version of a cruise ship in a way. It’s all lit up, it’s cool.”

Walkowe said she enjoys coming to the Riverboat to dance with her friends and socialize. This gives herself a chance to relax and not worry about schoolwork, she said.

Lansing Community College fashion merchandise and marketing junior Tamika Vantifflin said she also came to the Riverboat to give herself a well-deserved break.

“I’m just excited to be out here because I really wanted to celebrate Halloween because I work my life away," she said. “I’m glad I get to come out here.”

Vantifflin said she saw the Riverboat event on Facebook and told her best friend they had to go and live it up.

It has taken a lot of work to get the Riverboat as well-known as it is, marketing senior Jordan Viaches said. Viaches is the marketing coordinator for the vessel.

Viaches is one of Chamberlain’s friends who helped create college nights. For the past two or three years, it has been his responsibility to market, promote and advertise for the boat. In general, the success for Riverboat has been pretty good, as all college nights have been sold out, Viaches said, leaving students scrounging for tickets.

“It’s going to be crazy, there’s going to be a lot of people here in line trying to buy tickets that probably can’t,” he said.

With his graduation this upcoming May, Viaches said he and Chamberlain decided it was time for the college nights to come to an end. He said he was ready to move on, but it will be strange to leave something he’s been so invested in the past couple years.

“It’s a weird feeling,” he said. “It’s (Riverboat) something that I’m super comfortable with and been a part of for so many years now that it’s definitely a different feeling but I’m kind of excited to try something new.”

Viaches said there will still be one more college night in the spring, which will be "the definition of a rager." There will be a giant beer tent in addition to the Riverboat, and instead of the usual 500 tickets being sold, they will sell about 1,500.

He and Chamberlain are still trying to iron out some details like the date, Viaches said. He said he’s trying to find a time that will work for everyone and won’t have any other conflicting events. He said he's thinking March or April, hopefully after all the snow is gone and before people really need to start worrying about finals.

Although he is leaving, Viaches said he wants to make sure he leaves students with a lasting impression.

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“It will be weird looking back and no longer being a part of this and what we’ve built, but I think when it comes to the spring event we’ll end on a really good note,” he said. “We’ll end on a big party, we’ll go out with a bang and everyone will know what we were about.”

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