PIKAPALOOZA: A Frat Music Festival With Good Intentions

September 16, 2026 by Shawn Collins

I went to Lollapalooza at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston, VA, on August 14, 1992, and I was floored by the opportunity to see so many awesome performers in one place. Check out this lineup… Ice Cube, Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush, Ministry, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Soundgarden.

But that wasn’t all. In addition to lots of acts on the side stage, we were treated to an unannounced performance by Temple of the Dog! During the Pearl Jam set, Chris Cornell joined them for an absolutely kick-ass version of “Hunger Strike.”

The experience had my head spinning, and I wondered if we could do something similar, but on a much smaller scale, at the University of Maryland. Since the Lollapalooza name was so big at the time, and our fraternity went by PiKA (Pi Kappa Alpha), we went with the name PIKAPALOOZA.

The price of the Lollapalooza ticket included a donation to charity; I decided to do the same and make our event a benefit for SOME (So Others Might Eat), based in Washington, DC.

I can’t remember what we charged, but I think it was either a couple of cans of food or a few dollars to attend the whole festival. These were popular bands that had played at our fraternity house before, but this time there would be a bigger crowd in our parking lot.

There were the acts that day…

• Sean & Dave
• Black Sheep
• Faceplant
• Sorry About Your Daughter
• Avogadro’s Number
• The Unworld
• Lazy Suzan

I got a bunch of sponsors to help cover costs, and the bands donated their time for the good cause. It was an exciting event to put on shortly before I graduated.

One of the sponsors I brought on was New Edge and Beyond, run by a guy named Cosmic Dot. I have no idea what they did or how I even met him, but he was a fun character who helped make the day happen.

One of my favorite acts that day was Sorry About Your Daughter, and their badass rendition of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”

PIKAPALOOZA went off without a hitch, and we gathered plenty of canned goods to bring over to SOME. There were big crowds dancing, singing, drinking, and smiling. Overall, it was a fantastic event, and I was looking forward to other PiKAs taking over for future editions.

In the days before I graduated, I went down to the fraternity basement for something, and when I opened the door to our boiler room, I saw boxes and boxes of food we had collected to donate. Whoever was going to drive it over to SOME never did.

I didn’t have a car or driver’s license, and with the semester wrapping up, I wasn’t able to find a volunteer to drive the food into DC. After that, I got caught up with moving out, trying to get a job, and all of that, and the food just sat there unused. That part of PIKAPALOOZA sucks, but it was a good day otherwise.

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