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Sometimes high school students just need a break.
And thousands of kids at Milpitas High School — many of whom had been taking state mandated tests this past week — got much more than a break Thursday afternoon when a full-fledged concert and festival set up shop on their football field.
“Personally, I was super stoked about it,” Skylar Pitre, a senior at the school, said Thursday.
The High School Nation Tour visited 20 schools in California as part of this year’s schedule, including several in the Bay Area, bringing live music, games, activities and free swag to students, offering them a unique opportunity to blow off some steam. Milpitas was one of the tour’s last stops in the state this year.
The Plain White T’s, a two-time Grammy-nominated band most known for their hit “Hey There Delilah,” headlined the show in Milpitas, which also featured up-and-coming indie pop and alternative artists.
The early reviews were glowing.
“This is way better than the school assemblies,” Dia A., a freshman at the school, said Thursday.
“We get out of class, we get to connect and check out different things,” senior Alexys Aleman said.
“I think this is like the best thing our school has done in a while,” senior Nina Moreno said.
The Trojans’ turf field was full of sponsor booths, like Hollister, which was giving out free reusable water bottles, and PETA, which was handing out vegan jerky snacks.
Students dove headlong into a plastic ball pit in the center of the field, and others hung out on bean bags in a shaded area.
Guitar Center also sponsored a jam session booth equipped with guitars, drums and amplifiers, where freshman Amanuel Ayalew was playing bass with his jazz band friends.
“It’s a really good opportunity for people to get outside and try something new,” he said of the event, in between their renditions of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
“It’s nice to be able to just socialize, something we don’t really get to do very often. Everyone’s stuck at home on their screens,” he said.
Tom Higgenson, lead singer of the T’s, said the tour is fun because artists feed off the energy of all the students, making for great atmosphere.
“They get to be pulled out of school to go to a concert,” he said. “This is incredible, it’s so fun to play.”
And even though most of the students were toddlers when Higgenson’s most famous song was released, many of them were most excited for the performance by the T’s, and sang along in unison when they hit the stage.
“The fact that we have a band like that playing in Milpitas, a small town in Silicon Valley,” junior Aniket Tyagi said, “it’s kind of mind-blowing.”
The tour doesn’t just bring a free show and festival to each school. After it leaves town, it donates a complete package of musical equipment from sponsors to the school including mixers, guitars, keyboards, drums, software and an iMac computer, among other items, according to founder Jimmy Cantillon.
The tour also works with the school’s music and arts instructors and administrators to connect them with trainers and producers who can help the schools make the most of the donated goods.
“The reason that we’re doing it is to leave something that will impact future generations,” Cantillon said of the tour.
He said the schools for the tour, which has been running since 2012, are chosen based on a variety of factors, including the number of students, and sometimes how many students are on free and reduced price meal plans.
Cantillon said kids from lower-income households at typically underserved schools may not get to experience live music very often, if at all, and the tour brings it to them instead.
“The idea is to get (students) excited about the arts, and excited about, if not a career in the arts, at least a healthy hobby,” he said.
The tour already made stops at Tennyson High School in Hayward, Benicia High, Richmond High, and Yerba Buena High School in San Jose during its Northern California leg. It was also set to stop at Oak Grove High School in San Jose before heading to Arizona.
Angela Nickel and her friend Jayel Medd, both seniors at Milpitas High, were at the very front of the audience barricade Thursday, getting ready for the T’s to perform.
“We basically got as close as we could,” Nickel said.
“I want to hear ‘Hey There Delilah,'” Medd said.
Zoe Guzicki, a junior, said buzz had been building among students this week as they found out about the concert.
“Everyone’s been talking about it all day, even on social media,” she said. “I think it was a really nice treat. MHS doesn’t really do this kind of thing.”
Myles Ababa, a senior who plays ukulele, said he likes the vibes the concert brought to his school.
“I feel like more schools should have these events because it brings a lot of good energy,” he said. The concert “helps brings students closer to music and closer to each other.”
But most importantly, he said, it lets kids “relax, hang out, have fun.”
