Yee Lim Shin—Staff Writer

Saturday, September 14: Pork’n’Bands III, an annual come-and-go food and music event, wil be hosted in the BackBack of the Fruited Plain. Its Facebook events page has pulled in over 100 people interested or going to the event—and Pork’n’Bands III is ready for another year of community, good food, and quality music. With around 12 bands signed up, it is set to start at 3pm Saturday evening and end around midnight.

“It’s kind of like a back to school event to try to connect with Dordt students. It’s our kickoff event of the year as a music venue,” said Fruited Plain owner Laremy De Vries.

“It was the first month of school, so I got to meet other people I didn’t know there,” sophomore Antonio Maldonado, who attended last year’s Pork ‘n Bands II, said.

Pork’n’Bands gives a great opportunity for the Sioux Center community to come together and “rub shoulders and elbows” while listening to good music and eating good food.

The “pork” in the Pork’n’Bands is a fundraiser for Covenant CRC, while the “bands” are community bands from Dordt, Northwestern, and the Sioux Center area. This year, all but one group–The Author, from Minneapolis–are from Sioux Center. Among those are Dordt students or alumni such as The Ruralists, The Aircraft, The Neverreacher, The Second, Noah Deist, and many others.

“The crowd is from [ages] 2-80, so it’s pretty widespread,” Luke Hawley, associate professor of English and lead singer of The Ruralists, said.

Events like this help encourage the community musically, allowing anyone from the Sioux Center community to sign up to show their talents. It also gives opportunities for both Dordt students and the community to go out and connect with each other.

“The BackBack is wide open for anybody who wants to use it for anything,” Hawley said. He noted that the BackBack would be happy to host stand up comedies, plays, or similar events for college students as long as they contact himself or De Vries about it.