Joe Wilensky

Barton Hall was transformed into a four-stage community showcase event extravaganza for the Big Red Birthday Bash April 24 celebrating Cornell's sesquicentennial.

Lindsay France/University Photography

Big Red Birthday Bash attendees toast with celebratory cupcakes in Barton Hall.

Lindsay France/University Photography

Members of Ithaca's Armstrong School of Dance and Cornell's On Tap Dance Troupe lead the flash mob dancing to "We Are Family."

Lindsay France/University Photography

Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick '09, left, and Cornell President David Skorton, right, along with local Ithaca singers The Burns Sisters, dance and sing "We Are Family" during the university's birthday party celebration in Barton Hall April 24.

Fantastic sights, sounds and tastes were offered in abundance at a birthday party that was a feast for the senses Friday night at Barton Hall celebrating Cornell’s sesquicentennial.

The hall’s vast interior was transformed into a showcase for performance talent, local foods, images of research and discovery, and rollicking birthday festivities for the Big Red Birthday Bash April 24 during Charter Day Weekend.

More than 4,200 people from the Cornell and Ithaca communities attended the two-and-a-half-hour party. Entrance tokens – illuminated necklaces sporting the university seal – sparkled throughout Barton, as guests moved along the perimeter of food vendors and displays, and through performers, a sesquicentennial photo booth and four stage areas.

The Big Red Marching Band entered Barton to start the party; the stages lit up every few minutes for short performances by dance groups such as the Phenomenon Step Team, Cornell Bhangra and Sabor Latino Dance Ensemble; a cappella groups the Class Notes, the Chordials and Key Elements; Yamatai, Cornell’s Taiko drumming group, and Paul Merrill’s Jazz Group; and local groups such as the Community Unity Music Education Program and Jen X Academy of Dance. Total performers numbered 350, organizers said, including the marching band’s 100 strong.

A huge, square red carpet in the center of the hall held the largest staging area, which was surrounded by 12-foot-high vertical, illuminated displays of images ranging from a close-up of a mosquito ear, to President Abraham Lincoln’s signature, to a map detailing restaurant spending in the New York City metro area. Performers were projected onto huge screens hung from scaffolding.

Members of Cornell’s Juggling Club roamed through the crowd and performed throughout the evening, as did the women’s hockey team (on inline skates); and the Big Red Bear, festooned with several blinking Cornell seal necklaces, mingled with guests, mostly for photo ops (“I think you blinked on that one, Touchdown!” called out one photographer after taking a group photo).

“I like that Cornell has really made the effort to mark this occasion and bring together communities [that reach] across the globe,” said Jessica Ames, a program manager with the Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

“I was blown away by the performances,” she said. “They showed the diversity and vastness of the Cornell community.”

Sarah Palmer ’17, an alto saxophonist with the Big Red Marching Band, said playing Barton Hall was “exhilarating because it’s something that we love so much to do … [this] is just something we’re never going to forget.”

President David Skorton and Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick ’09 took the stage as cupcakes iced in red and gold, some bearing the “150” logo, were brought out on trays. Cups of the Cornell Dairy sesquicentennial ice cream “Sweet CORNell” also were served.

“Does Ithaca have talent, or what?” said Skorton, noting that the event was as much about celebrating Cornell’s “amazing communities” as it was a party for the university’s 150th birthday.

He thanked local vendors participating in the event including Rev: Ithaca Startup Works, Ithaca’s downtown business incubator.

“Happy Birthday, Cornell,” Myrick shouted to the crowd, “I have to say: you don’t look a year over 135.”

“The No. 1 contribution Cornell University makes to Ithaca is more Ithacans,” Myrick added. “And if there’s one thing this world needs, it’s more Ithacans.”

The Burns Sisters joined Skorton and Myrick on stage to sing and dance to “We Are Family” and led the singing of “Happy Birthday” as lights swirled through the audience and streamers dropped from above.

“This was beyond anything I expected … it was quite amazing. It’s totally out of the ordinary, said Hubert Lobo ’86, of Ithaca, who attended with his family, including wife, Renu Gandhi ’93, and daughter Tara Lobo, a senior in the School of Hotel Administration.

“It was really great – I loved seeing all my friends perform,” Tara Lobo said. “I do events [where] we manage multiple stages and it’s very complicated, so I’m very impressed. It was really amazing.”