Are you looking for a place to shelter from the rain? Do you like to jam out to funky bands? If your answers to the prior questions are yes, then you may want to sneak over to the MUB Strafford room this Saturday at 4:30 p.m. for the debut of Jammock; an indoor concert where that evoes the serene, yet jubilant feeling one may feel while swaying in a hammock. Attendees are welcome to enjoy live music, explore student organizations and eat local pizza. The event was previously scheduled to be a hammocking event on the SERCs lawn, but has been relocated to the MUB Strafford room due to the rain.
Jammock is a collaboration between multiple University of New Hampshire (UNH) student organizations, including the Campus Activities Board (CAB), Hammocking Club (HC), New Hampshire Outing Club (NHOC) and The Recreation Society (TRS). The event will feature food available to purchase from Durham House of Pizza and an indoor concert with bands such as Rigometrics, Sneaky Miles, Lazy-Bird and Film-V.
The idea of Jammock originated from Ella Janko, executive member of TRS, and fourth year recreation management and policy major with a focus on program and event management (RMP). Janko is also a member of the HC. She has been developing the idea of Jammock since October 2022. Janko was inspired to create a campus wide hammocking event upon experiencing the enjoyment of Hammocking Club.
The idea for Jammock was ignited when she was taking a course on event planning. Whilst in class, Janko considered two options: putting on Jammock as a class project, or saving it for something bigger.
“I didn’t want to just do it for the class and have it be small. I want [Jammock] to grow into something that all of campus can enjoy,” she said. “I saw how much people loved hammocking, and thought that we should combine with other organizations and make an event. The name came to me in my sleep. I had a dream, I woke up, and I was like ‘Jammock that’s it, that’s what’s happening, that’s the name.’”
Official plans for Jammock took shape when Janko returned to the states after studying abroad for the spring 2023 semester in Florence, Italy. Over the summer Janko connected with fellow RMP major Mason Semaniuk who is also a member of TRS, the live entertainment chair of CAB and a production member of the UNH Student Committee on Popular Entertainment (SCOPE). Semaniuk and Janko were a part of the same project group in their event planning course. When Semaniuk hopped on board Jammock he was able to affiliate the event with CAB, and helped with promotion and outreach to other student organizations for collaboration.
“I trusted him [Semaniuk] enough to tell him my idea, and bring him on board. He’s been super helpful in planning the event,” said Janko. “The summer was when we really got into the planning, and deciding on what bands we wanted.”
Janko and Semaniuk took inspiration from the genres of music on the Hammocking Club playlist for Jammock. Janko discovered the band Lazy Bird on a trip to Chatham, New York. After hearing Lazy Bird live, Janko wanted them to perform at Jammock. She talked to the band after their set, and later direct messaged them on Instagram asking if they’d like to participate in the event.
Semaniuk curated the rest of the bands set to perform at Jammock. Two of the bands playing at Jammock are connected to UNH: Film V and Sneaky Miles. The band Film V consists of present UNH students and alumni who have recently graduated. Sneaky Miles is a band made up entirely of UNH alumni.
“The vibe of the music [for Jammock] is a chiller environment at the start, but also fun and dancey. Film V covers that with a bang right at the start. Sneaky Miles has more indie rock, and dance elements, with slower ballads in there. Lazy Bird is more of a jam band, with good vibes type music. Rigometrics is a fusion of funk-rock,” said Semaniuk. “Rigometrics is closing out because we want a big rock-ish band that everyone can get up and dance to at the end of the event.”
The original location of Jammock was strategically placed at SERCs lawn for two reasons: a lot of trees for hammocking and visibility to the surrounding residence halls. Due to the rain however, the event has been relocated indoors. During Jammock, various student organizations will be tabling to gain more recognition, according to Janko. The organizations tabling at Jammock include NHOC, TRS and HC.
“Coming back to school there isn’t much programming led by student organizations. We planned this event over the summer, and it’s an introduction to the live music scene here at UNH and here in New England. Jammock is a very good way to get involved,” said Semaniuk. He said the organizations table will all be bringing their own flair. He stated that at the event there may be games run by NHOC.
Catie Coneybear is a fourth year inter-club liaison for NHOC, and has a chief of operations role at TRS. The NHOC puts on a variety of outings including climbing trips, overnights at their cabins at the White Mountains and hiking, among other outdoor trips.
According to Coneybear, NHOC is trying to have more of a presence on campus. Since it’s such an important club on campus for the outdoors and recreation she hopes that the NHOC will be able to bring more participation and reach different types of people on campus interested in the outdoors by tabling at Jammock.
Janko is tentatively optimistic that Jammock could become a yearly or semesterly UNH tradition, but for now is mostly focused on making sure the first iteration of it goes smoothly.
“I really want to hopefully aim for the spring if it goes well, and possibly make it into a fundraising event,” she said.
Janko is hopeful that the tradition of Jammock could potentially turn into an event where attendees may plant trees on campus.
“The chill and fun feeling that I get hammocking is what I want the whole night to be. Whether there is enough space for everyone to hammock or not I want it [the atmosphere] to convey the same feeling I get whenever I’m just chilling in a hammock. I want to see people in triple decker hammocks jamming to music going on, and everyone connecting,” said Janko.
The Jammock graphic was originally sketched out by Janko, and later developed in its finality by James Kay, a friend of Janko’s who helped her vision come to life. The graphic depicts a triple hammock set-up that you might see at a HC outing or on a sunny day at the SERCs lawn. There will be stickers of the graphic created by Janko and Kay given out at the Jammock event.
“One of the things I really love about event planning is seeing visions come to life. The most satisfying thing to me is putting this thing on, organizing it, and halfway through the event you sit back, look at everything and think ‘wow, I did that, and all of these people are here because of all of the people who organized it,’” said Semaniuk.
Jammock is a free event for students and open to the UNH community.
