Story by: Johnathan White

Main entrance to the festival, while being greeted by friendly horses. Photo by Johnathan White 

A large collective of parents, students and distinguished guests of the program, crowded the walkway all a buzz with excitement for the activities of the day. The weather permitted full go on outside enjoyment, with a wide selection of food and beverage.  

When the band got goin for the Concert on the Farm, everybody really started to move. It was evident that many individuals who had a significant hand in planning this festival, breathed a sigh of relief to see how smoothly things were operating.   

All tables for the Dinner on the Farm see care in their presentation. The seating chart is carefully arranged to fit every organization or group in attendance.  That is dedication from the entire staff for this Weekend Festival 

Televisions were put in place to ensure every inch of tables could view the activities on stage. Special thanks to the production team that handled sound and camera operations. It can be hard to hear or see somebody fully from 100 yards away, especially for the older generation present for the festival.  

Once dinner was served, table by table grew quiet and dug into the delectable dishes distributed by Black Sheep Restaurant Group. Those men and women were working round the clock on this day to ensure their part was handled and then some. It was all a smash hit to say the least. 

Story by: Grae Barron

As part of the University of North Florida’s Recreation and Wellness department, Eco Adventure serves the entire Jacksonville community.  

Many groups from companies, schools, and other clubs pop over to try their hands at the ropes course. The ropes course is a test of teamwork and trust, but nothing can get going without the direction of the staff. 

The staff at Eco Adventure are trained in all sorts of safety techniques needed in other sports like rock climbing to make sure that each and every participant is safe when harnessed 20 feet in the air. 

Ropes course at Eco Adventure. Photo by Grae Barron 

Amy Costa, the Assistant Director of Eco Adventure, said that the staff is certified in different safety programs and teambuilding activities before taking groups up to the course.  

“We do a lot of extensive training with them because they obviously have to have a lot of hard skills and soft skills to take people up on the ropes course,” she said. “They go through literally, like, a whole semester of learning the skills and then they get ACCT certified.” 

The ACCT is the Association of Challenge Course Technology, which brings safety courses and certification to most ropes courses in the world. With these certifications, the staff is trained in rock climbing techniques, different knots, and safe ways to get back onto the course.  

The employees at Eco Adventure are mostly UNF students with little experience going in, but by the time they are able to bring groups through the course, they are equipped with the knowledge and skills required to keep everyone safe while having a good time.  

The challenge course is available for the Jacksonville community as many different teams work on trust skills through the program. 

Story by: Giana Mercado

Dressed in pink feathers and sequins, Barbie T, welcomed expecting military families at Operation Shower held at TPC Sawgrass. Operation Shower is a non-profit that hosts baby showers for military moms-to-be to help ease the stress of deployment. This year, they invited radio host Barbie T to emcee the event. 

Barbie T emceeing Operation Shower. Photo by Giana Mercado. 

“Hosting these types of events are a lot of fun,” said Barbie. “It gets me in the face of the community, and you really get to see who is listening to my show every morning. Giving back to them is just really what I have to do, it’s my mission.”  

At the baby shower, Barbie entertained the moms and their families by hosting games such as bingo and trivia. She also handed out 95.1 WAPE stuffed animal gorillas to the families as gift. 

95.1 WAPE gorilla. Photo by Giana Mercado. 

Barbie is new to Jacksonville from Greenville, South Carolina. She relocated a month ago to the First Coast so her and her radio partner’s show, Dex and Barbie T Morning Show could take over 95.1 WAPE.  

“I absolutely love it. Dreams come true for sure,” said Barbie.  

The radio show provides fun and real content by having an interactive format. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are days listeners can call into the show to share anonymous secrets or ask for advice. Tuesday and Thursday is their Ghosted days where Dex and Barbie will call the listener’s partner that ghosted them. Ghosting is when someone cuts off communication without explanation. 

“We’ll call them up and be like ‘so why did you ghost my girl’ and they give you a reason why,” said Barbie. “Now use it at your own discretion because your business will be aired out.” 

Barbie also expressed excitement for True Crime Tuesdays where people call into the show and share their own personal experience with true crime.  

Although moving states can be scary, for Barbie T, it was just a step for her dreams and passions for radio.  

Story by: William Horne

The sport of flag football is not new by any means. However, the impact it is making on high school sports surely is. Flag football is one of the newer FHSAA sanctioned sports and the best part of all, it is strictly for the girls. No longer is football a male dominated sport, these female athletes have made an impact and the change is evident.  

Flag football has not only made its way through high school sports, but more and more colleges have also added it as a scholarship sport. Meaning these ladies can now play for more than just their high school, but play for an opportunity to have their school paid for. “Colleges are now offering scholarships to play flag football, which is really great to hear because it was not that big of a sport back then,” said local flag football athlete Celeste Ware. 

The biggest supporter in the growth of flag football, has by far been the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags have held college showcase camps allowing college coaches to come and see athletes perform and compete, they have also held other camps and preseason games for teams all over Florida, but even more importantly the Jaguars are now offering scholarships as well to help out these young female athletes not have to worry about the burden of student loans. “60 percent of NFL fans are females now,” said Oakleaf Flag football coach, Steve Joyner. The Jags have provided teams all over the area with equipment and the opportunity to help this sport thrive and reach its full potential.  

Picture provided by Oakleaf Athletics 

Story by: Aubrey Lowery

Record Store day started in 2007 when streaming began to take over the music industry, pushing both record stores and physical forms of media away.  

However, the younger generation has become infatuated with vinyl and has taken over the demand previously held by consumers in the seventies.  

Mostly the surge is attributed to vinyl resurfacing in social media sites such as Tumblr, and Instagram, as well as stores like Urban Outfitters having complete vinyl sections in the store tailored to the younger demographic.  

This increase has sparked mainstream artists to include vinyl pressings in the launch of new music. Where artists like Taylor Swift have used it immensely, in releasing eight different vinyl pressings for her album Folklore back in 2020.  

With megastars like Swift who’s fanbase will purchase vinyls in every variety, is the same demand for record store day releases.  

Record store day releases. Photo by Aubrey Lowery 

This year record store day takes place on a Saturday, meaning that most local record stores will have lines of people lining up overnight. 

All Record Store Day Pressings are only sold in limited quantities at independent record stores. In efforts to help boost sales against bigger corporations.  

One of those stores is Music Matters Remixed which has turned the once all CD store back into a vinyl focused store, acting as a hub for collectors in the area to turn to. The store is a record store day approved location meaning that they can not sell the exclusives for any price other than what the artist has marked it as.  

If you are looking to grab one of the Record Store Day Exclusives, should be warned that there are no holds, or pre order that can’t be done it is first come first serve.  

So getting an exclusive record on record store day becomes even more special. 

Story by: Samantha Stephenson

Keg and Coin, Jacksonville’s first “barcade,” has made quite the reputation for itself regarding the atmosphere that it holds. With the more classic bar games like darts, to more colorful options like pinball and retro arcade cabinets, either way this craft beer bar has something for everyone to try. 

One cabinet stands out from the rest though, set up in the middle of the main floor, its flashing blue and yellow screens drawing attention from across the bar. When looking more closely at the machine you may notice that this isn’t your classic Pac-Man or Galaga style cabinet, Instead of the familiar button and joystick setup this machine has five sticks on each side, with buttons to match.  

Killer Queen, described as the “first and only 10-person strategy arcade game,” brings in quite the crowd to Keg and Coin. With competitive events being held once a week every Wednesday night, teams of five are able to come in and compete with other teams in order to earn their arcade supremacy. Anyone is eligible to join and leading up to that night’s tournament patrons of the bar are encouraged to try out the machine on free play throughout the day. 

For those curious as to how the game plays, it seems to be a strange hybrid of classic fast paced arcade action combined with the strategy decision making of chess, all wrapped up in a somewhat bee themed package. With each team of five starting out with four “worker drones” and one “queen.” Each team must choose one player who plays the queen at the start of the match, and similar to chess the queen is considered to be the “strongest piece on the board.” 

The ultimate goal of the game is to knock out the opposing team’s queen three times by utilizing your team’s drones and queen. 

Much of the interest for the game is driven by the fast paced action combined with the on-the-fly decision making that the game requires of you. While this interest gets people into the game, what keeps them coming back is the community. Events that are held by locations like Keg and Coin help to keep the community alive. 

These events are symbiotic, as players are able to find a place to convene for tournaments while the venue gains more foot traffic from new and returning customers. All of this comes without having to compromise the distinct atmosphere that Keg and Coin has cultivated, still offering a comforting and nostalgic environment where people can gather to play games and enjoy a cold beverage. 

Story by: Judd Barczak

Keg and Coin, Jacksonville’s first “barcade,” has made quite the reputation for itself regarding the atmosphere that it holds. With the more classic bar games like darts, to more colorful options like pinball and retro arcade cabinets, either way this craft beer bar has something for everyone to try. 

One cabinet stands out from the rest though, set up in the middle of the main floor, its flashing blue and yellow screens drawing attention from across the bar. When looking more closely at the machine you may notice that this isn’t your classic Pac-Man or Galaga style cabinet, Instead of the familiar button and joystick setup this machine has five sticks on each side, with buttons to match.  

Killer Queen, described as the “first and only 10-person strategy arcade game,” brings in quite the crowd to Keg and Coin. With competitive events being held once a week every Wednesday night, teams of five are able to come in and compete with other teams in order to earn their arcade supremacy. Anyone is eligible to join and leading up to that night’s tournament patrons of the bar are encouraged to try out the machine on free play throughout the day. 

For those curious as to how the game plays, it seems to be a strange hybrid of classic fast paced arcade action combined with the strategy decision making of chess, all wrapped up in a somewhat bee themed package. With each team of five starting out with four “worker drones” and one “queen.” Each team must choose one player who plays the queen at the start of the match, and similar to chess the queen is considered to be the “strongest piece on the board.” 

The ultimate goal of the game is to knock out the opposing team’s queen three times by utilizing your team’s drones and queen. 

Much of the interest for the game is driven by the fast paced action combined with the on-the-fly decision making that the game requires of you. While this interest gets people into the game, what keeps them coming back is the community. Events that are held by locations like Keg and Coin help to keep the community alive. 

These events are symbiotic, as players are able to find a place to convene for tournaments while the venue gains more foot traffic from new and returning customers. All of this comes without having to compromise the distinct atmosphere that Keg and Coin has cultivated, still offering a comforting and nostalgic environment where people can gather to play games and enjoy a cold beverage.