The two men at the entrance armed with attendance counters had their work cut out for them as more than 2,400 students flooded in to the Adult Swim Carnival on April 2.

SDSU was one of 10 schools selected for the Cartoon Network Adult Swim Carnival Tour.

“In our off season, the crew identifies a bunch of different schools and then the ultimate selection process begins,” said Senior Production Manager, Michael Smolanoff. “We go off of how interested the schools are, the program organization at the school and the dates. The more flexible a school is with dates, the more likely they are to be chosen.”

SDSU was the fourth stop on the tour. Previous stops were University of Delaware, Auburn University and University of Kentucky.

“I’ve been a big Adult Swim fan a big chunk of my life,” said John Schmidt, a junior journalism major from Minneapolis, Minn. “When I found out the tour was coming here I was surprised at first, then really excited.”

Students were hired to work the game booths. Senior graphic design major Derek Kramer of Howard, S.D., was placed in charge of the student workers.

“Honestly, this turned out better than anticipated considering how cold and windy it is,” he said. “I’m also surprised of the turnout especially because it’s hard to advertise in Brookings.”

The event approached SDSU on its own accord, however, the University Program Council worked with the crew to make arrangements for the event.

“I’m still amazed this is happening,” said UPC Showcase Coordinator, Elliott Strand. “And they got Dan Deacon. That’s amazing.”

Deacon, who is headlining five of the dates during the tour, is an electronic musician from Baltimore, Md. He is renowned for his live shows with large-scale audience participation.

“I don’t know if South Dakota can handle Dan,” Strand said before the event.

Before Deacon took the stage, Sioux Falls band Later Babes performed. The band is a mesh of mixers, keyboards and live drums. The band opened up the airwaves and people were dancing in front of the large stage.

The crowd at the stage was dense, but the lines at every game and the free T-shirt booth never faltered. Thanks to the small area, the sound traveled all throughout Student Center Lane. Through each game, every participant earned raffle tickets for various prizes including prize packs and a chance to earn cash from a “cash grab”.

Deacon came on around 9:30 p.m. and the crowd greeted him enthusiastically. He denied standing on the stage like the other activities, and chose to perform down in front of the crowd instead.

“This event is good everywhere. Never at one point did we think, ‘Hmm… Can South Dakota handle this?’” Smolanoff said. “There hasn’t been a school yet where we haven’t been well received.”

The attendees, mostly students but non-students were welcome as well, made this once-in-a-lifetime event for SDSU a success, according to Strand.

“I think this was just something fun to do on a weekday,” freshman Jordan Goodall said. “It just proves that our school can bring some really awesome events to campus