First Night at the Overture

Students who are new to UW-Madison were off and running not long after they settled in to their residence halls. More than 3,000 freshmen and transfer students filled spaces at the Overture Center for the Arts in downtown Madison on Aug. 28 at an event dubbed First Night at the Overture.

The schedule, jam packed starting at 9 p.m. and going past midnight, was designed to provide gathering spots throughout the Overture Center. Students could choose from the Bascom Hill Band on the Rotunda Stage, to improvisational comedy in the Wisconsin Studio, to spoken-word performances in the Capitol Theater and more. Students could also kick back and play board and card games, or get on their feet to learn dance styles from rumba to waltz to swing.

And in an entertaining exercise of mind over matter — a skill every new student will develop as the year goes on — a hypnotist and his power of suggestion had students happily auditioning for what they were told was “American Idol.”

Slide show by Jeff Miller and Cindy Foss.