The weather was hot and the event was new but that didn’t stop both the students of California University of Pennsylvania and the members of the California borough from coming out and enjoying the Riverfest festival.

Riverfest, usually only ran by the California borough, was in full swing this past weekend. The borough teamed up with various faculty members at Cal U to make this years festival even bigger and better than previous years. Student Activities Board’s advisor, Missy Dunn, was one of the faculty members who worked very closely with the borough of California to make sure the dates of Riverfest overlapped with the dates of Cal U’s orientation weekend. By doing this Dunn hoped it would be a start in bridging the gap between the community and the college.

The festival consisted of various craft stands, food vendors, a kid zone and live music. Tim Litvin, The Hobbs Sisters, and Chris Jamison performed at various times on Saturday giving all of those in attendance a variety of music to enjoy. All of these artists, brought to Riverfest by the Student Activities Board, were from around the surrounding counties giving a stronger sense of community to the festival.

Litvin was a student at Cal U for a year before deciding he was going to pursue his music career and was more than happy to be performing for some familiar faces again.

Hailing from Peters Township, The Hobbs Sisters, seemed to be a crowd favorite when they started performing not only some original songs but also covers from well known artists such as Carrie Underwood, The Eagles and Maren Morris.

Although all the acts provided the audiences with wonderful shows, the star of Saturday was Chris Jamison, who capped off the night with a high energy performance that made students line up as close to the stage as they could get.

When asked about why she came to Riverfest sophomore, Brianne Burton, explained “I only came for Chris Jamison.”

Jamison finished in third place on season 7 of The Voice leaving many fans wondering how he didn’t win the entire competition. Once Jamison completed his set the members of the Student Activites Board and Underground Cafe announced that Jesse McCartney will be performing at Cal U on October 6 and that it would be free to both Cal U students and the community. More information on tickets and the event itself are in the works.

Sunday brought even more fun during the day with the same vendors but different bands. Soulio was ready to perform, however, due to a wicked storm that turned the sunny California day into a night, the band was not able to perform.

The fireworks that were scheduled to go off at the end of Riverfest were postponed to a different night that has not yet been announced. Despite the storm, the weekend created many bonds between the community and Cal U that will hopefully result in more positive things occurring throughout the year.