This past week, I attended Hawk Health Day, and I was extremely excited to do so. As many people do, I care about my mental health, and  wanted to learn more about the ways that people can encourage others to seek assistance for their mental health struggles. I believe that events like these are extremely important, especially to a college campus that, sadly, has seen mental health struggles firsthand. There was just one problem– I should have learned sign language for that day because I couldn’t hear a thing that the tables were saying to me.

When I first entered, I enjoyed a relatively peaceful Carr Center, where everyone was talking normally, and the atmosphere was chipper. There was ambient music playing in the background, and it was an overall chill vibe. While I was signing into the event, I met up with a friend, and we both planned out a path to meet all the tables that we wanted to visit. Both of us had friends working at the event, so we were pretty excited to see them there. Unfortunately, our excitement was interrupted by extremely loud music.

Title Card, a student-run band here on campus, was booked to perform at the event. However, when they began to perform, their music was extremely disruptive. My friend and I tried to speak to different tables, only to be met with screaming event workers yelling about people’s mental health. I spoke to one of my friends who attended the event, who told me he had recorded the decibel level when they began to play. At the door of the event, the decibel level reached 90 decibels, which is above the harmful limit of 85 decibels. One can also assume that it only got louder as you walked closer to the stage. Louder than 90 is very dangerous to someone’s hearing, and I hope that those who worked at the tables closest to the stage didn’t develop significant hearing problems..

Now, this isn’t entirely Title Card’s fault; they were expecting to play outside on JOA quad, which is indeed an outdoor venue. They most likely had their equipment set up for playing outdoors, in a space where that kind of volume would be “acceptable.” But, the key issue still remains:they are musicians. Do they not know how to turn down an AMP? There is no need to be so loud at this kind of event. I understand that you’re a rock band, but I feel like reading the room is key in this scenario.

I will also say that this is not to throw shade at the people who I am sure worked extremely hard to move the show inside at the last minute. I respect the work that went into putting together a show much like this. However, it must be said that Title Card as a performance was not the best choice, I believe, for a mental health awareness day. The loud, obnoxious music brought no one but the band’s following, be it small, any joy. This event needed an act that was somewhat tamer than this band. I understand that more serious bands tend to cost more money, so I would suggest that next time they keep the drums that they were playing before Title Card went on stage. That performance matched the tone of the event extremely well and, in my opinion, was able to bring better music without being completely suppressive.

Overall, Hawk Health Day was a great success. It raised awareness for the advocacy of those with mental health struggles and other things such as faith struggles and problems of sexual violence. All the tables communicated their ideas perfectly, with strong messages, great information, and excellent memorabilia. The only problem that I and many others had was Title Card’s music at the event. I left that event with a significant headache, much like others, and I hope that the band takes this message as an opportunity to improve themselves. Granted, it’s only a few people; between the members composing the group and their recently acquired fan base, they may not even read this article. This is just my opinion, but Title Card hurt my mental health. I would talk to my therapist about this if only I could hear her.