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Post Register
Community welcomes BYU-Idaho
students with annual event
By Casey Archibald
carchibald@postregister.com
A
s students descend
on Rexburg to
start a new year at
Brigham Young Universi-
ty-Idaho, the community
welcomes them with the
annual Rexburg Un-
plugged event.
The event started as
a way to introduce the
businesses to our new
students, Donna Benfield,
the Executive Director of
the Rexburg Chamber of
Commerce said.
This year, the event will
take place at Hemming
Village, a fairly new shop-
ping and dining center
downtown. During the
event, the street will be
blocked off from First
South to Second South.
The event is put on by
the Rexburg Chamber of
Commerce and is spon-
sored by several local
businesses.
While the main pur-
pose of the event is for
students to interact with
local businesses, the event
also features a battle of
the bands competition for
student bands.
We wanted to do
something that the stu-
dents would be interested
in and enjoy. By having all
student bands it brings a
lot of the students down
to support their friends if
they play in the band, said
Benfield.
Three prizes will be giv-
en out for the first, second
and third place band in
the competition.
This is the 11th year
of the event and Chesbro
music is one of the prima-
ry sponsors for the battle
of the bands this year.
During the music event,
booths run by local busi-
nesses and food vendors
line the streets advertising
their goods and services.
Several years back Ben-
field said the city wanted
to hold the event on the
BYU-I campus. However,
it was the Universitys idea
to hold Rexburg Un-
plugged in the
city.
The event
will be Sept.
28 from 2 to 6
p.m. Benfield
said the event
is usually
earlier in the
month but
because of the
late school
schedule, they
had to push
the event to a later date.
Janet Miller, the Events
Chairman, said We offer
booths to the businesses
for $25. They can also
bring us 1,500 fliers and
for $10 we will give them
out to students.
The event has been
excellent in past years.
The students come out
in big numbers and we
have gift packets for each
student that comes. There
are goodies from all the
businesses included in the
bags.
Benfield said refresh-
ments and games are also
provided at the event.
Even though the event
is geared toward students,
Benfield explained that
community members are
also welcome to attend.
Benfield said she is
looking forward to this
years Rexburg Unplugged
because the city enjoys
welcoming new students
into town.
We wanted to do something
that the students would be
interested in and enjoy.
Donna Benfield, Executive Director
of the Rexburg Chamber of Commerce