Stonehill College Goes Country
By Aurora Ferreira
On Thursday, September 10th, 2026, The Hill held its weekly Brother Mike’s. Appropriately named, “Country Night”, this event was the first of three taking place during Country Weekend. With the event starting at 10:00 pm, students were arriving in jeans and leather boots, ready for not just Country, but to Celebrate Ace the Skyhawk’s aligning 21st birthday.
The next night, Friday September 11th, also taking place in the Hill, is the second event, Line Dancing After Dark. This event has two main appeals, the namesake of the event, line dancing, and an opportunity for students to decorate their very own cowboy hats using a range of attachable letters, glue, paint, and various sizes, shapes and colors of plastic gems.
Many students arrived at the event early, trying to get one of the limited cowboy hats available. Some of these students arrived as early as 20 minutes before the official 9 pm start, leaving the students overseeing the hats and crafting material slightly surprised by the number of people who came early. “The event was a huge success,” said Marissa Caterino, class of 28’, an Office of Student Engagement (OSE) Event Planning Intern overseeing the event. She continued, “We started with 120 hats or something like that, I was told. And They all went away and then still more people asked for them. People were really excited to decorate them. And all those supplies were used up, which was great. And line dancing, --especially right at 9pm-- everybody was line dancing, having a good time.”
Junior Charlotte Crichton decorated her own hat and stayed to line dance with friends. “Well, they had the hat decorating station and the bandanas. We first went over there (the Brother Mike’s section of the Hill) to get our hats and decorate them. Then the guy was on stage and teaching all the dances and my friends and I were like in the front row, and we were just like dancing along in the circle,” she said.
As soon as the instructors began, the dance floor was flooded with students in blue jeans, summery tops, flannel, and newly decorated cowboy hats. Lines of dancers covered nearly all of space before the stage, making it difficult to cross the floor without having to join in on the organized dancing. Students danced the full two hours until the event ended at 11 pm, enjoying the music, and for those who arrived early enough, their new bandanna or hat.
That next day, Saturday September 12th, was Country Fest. This event took place on the Quad from 3 – 7 pm. This country concert featured LANCO, a Country music band from Nashville, Tennessee known for hits like “Born to love you” and “Greatest Love Story.” Opening for the band were musicians Sarah Martin from Lakeville and Timmy Brown from Norton.
There were various types of food trucks, including Gianna’s Lil Taco Co, Cheesy Chicks Mac and Cheese, Chicken on the Road, and Alex’s Ice Cream. Having also attended Country Fest, Charlotte said, “I stayed pretty much the whole time. Like when we first got there, we went to the like taco truck and got tacos and those were really good and then we went on the bowl and that was really fun and then we just like sat on the lawn and like listen to the music And then Lanco came on, and then he told everybody to come to the front. He came into the middle of the people, and we were all dancing around him.”
At 7 pm, once LANCO was winding down and finishing their performance, they prepared for a meet and greet with the audience. Students who bought merchandise from the band were given the opportunity to have them signed by the band. “I actually got my hat signed by all of them, and we took a photo together,” shared Charlotte.
While she did not go to line dancing last year, Marrisa Caterino also plans to attend Country Weekend in the future. When detailing her experience, Marissa said, “I think country weekend was overall better than I expected. I'm not a huge country music fan, but even for line dancing and the other events, they didn't just play country music, which was refreshing for an anti-country music person like me.”
Students were able to enjoy the event for not only the music, but the atmosphere and various other activities on the Quad. Students partook in lawn games like corn hole, connect four and, for those who were looking for a challenge, there was an electronic bull ride. Charlotte said, “it was just nice that you could just lay out on the quad. And you didn't have to directly-- if you didn't want to be in the pit with everybody dancing around, you didn't have to be. But if you wanted to dance around, you could. I really enjoyed it.”
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