Neither hours of rain nor hour-long lines could prevent thousands of students from turning out for Rites of Spring this weekend. But it could make them pretty upset.

“Sometimes things are out of your control,” said co-chair of Vanderbilt Programming Board’s Music Group Dave Silverstein. “We spend every minute this year planning this festival down to the smallest details, but you can’t plan the weather.”

Despite Friday’s long, cold rain, the show continued, according to Silverstein, “without a hitch.” According to festival rules, an outdoor concert can continue in the rain but must be halted for 20 minute long intervals if thunder or lightning are present. Friday’s rain may have fell hard, but did so without thunder or lightning, thus allowing Rites to go on as planned.

Students sought shelter under the food tents and in nearby buildings once the rain began.

“We were impressed with how many people stayed,” Silverstein said. “By no means did the crowd reflect the base ticket sales, but many stood through the rain, which shows how invested the student body is in the festival.”

But students were less than pleased by the long lines that greeted them on Saturday night.

“The lines were ridiculously long,” said freshman Jackie Kaplan. “We waited for more than half an hour and were seriously considering leaving.”

Silverstein agrees that lines were a problem, but he did not offer a reason for this year’s especially long wait.

“Every year Rites gets larger and becomes more of a grand event,” he said, “so we have to find ways to handle the increasing crowds.”

Next year, The Music Group plans to consider a fourth entrance into the concert to alleviate stress.

“This year, the lines were more of an issue than other years,” he said, “but we plan to work on that for the future.”

According to Silverstein, The Music Group is extremely happy with the way Rites turned out. But Vanderbilt students have mixed opinions.

“Rites is always a fun time,” said sophomore Hannah Palin, “but the lineup was organized poorly. Colbie Caillat and Feist put people to sleep at 10 p.m. — it was such an adjustment to switch from ‘1,2,3,4’ to ‘Yeah!’ when Lil Jon came on right after Feist.”

Sophomore Kat Mueller disagrees.

“Fiest was amazing!” she said “But Lil Jon didn’t sing at all — he tried to get the audience to sing to classic rock songs while he shouted out an occasional ‘Yeah!’”

Silverstein himself was very pleased with the artists’ performances.

“I especially loved Grace Potter,” he said. “People knew her name, but she didn’t have the reputation that some the artists had. She just came in and rocked the festival to the ground.”

—Nikki Bogopolskaya can be reached at veronika.bogopolskaya@vanderbilt.edu