By Hannah Martin

A sea of Ray Ban sunglasses, skinny jeans and Greek letters flooded Centennial Commons Monday, as people gathered to hear the pop-punk headliner band Boys Like Girls for a crowd of about 2,000 people at the second annual PIKEtoberfest.

This year, new sponsor sorority Kappa Delta and the Resident Student Association (RSA) partnered with fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha to co-host the all-day, free event featuring an activities fair, barbecue and live music.

Sticking with the rock vibes of last year’s headliner, Brand New, PIKEtoberfest hosted the last leg of the Verizon Tour this year comprised of Cute Is What We Aim For and Lights, in addition to Boys Like Girls.

Although the crowd was sparse, the quirky, space-age synth pop artist Lights had PIKE brothers screaming her name and throwing scrawled marriage proposals on stage.

The more mainstream pop-punk band Cute is What We Aim For drew in some more folks with hits like “Practice Makes Perfect” and “There’s a Class for This.”

By the time Boys like Girls hit the stage at 6 p.m., the lawn and all of the standing area in front of the stage was covered with a crowd filled with students, but also a handful of younger teenagers and their mothers all chanting “Boys Like Girls!”

The crowd erupted when the band played the hit singles “Hero/Heroine,” “Dance Hall Drug” and “Great Escape,” and waved their lighters and cell phones to the softer sounds of “Thunder.”

Pi Kappa Alpha brothers said they wanted to make this year’s PIKEtoberfest bigger, but getting the necessary funding wasn’t simple.

“We kind of got squeezed from the BRC (Budget Review Committee) as far as funding goes,” said PIKE’s Andy Clark, who helped run the event. “Ever since PIKEtoberfest last year, a lot more student groups realized that there’s this money out there to do things, so a lot more people are requesting.”

PIKE’s Sam Weckel said the BRC granted Pike $64,000 this year compared to last year’s $75,000.

While PIKE was in possession of the actual BRC grant, RSA organized the barbecue and Kappa Delta secured the venue and helped with stage set up to shoulder costs.

Kappa Delta sisters said they were excited to get involved in the event because they haven’t had a chance to promote their name, since they were installed in April.

“We just wanted to get involved and PIKEtoberfest is a great way to do it,” said Panhellenic Council representative Alex Judah of Kappa Delta. “Everybody loves it, it’s fun and it’s great for students who are both Greek and non-Greek to come out and enjoy a show.”

RSA President Kristina Cecil said she was also excited to grill while getting to know some of the organization’s new members.

“It’s great to barbecue. Everyone wants food with their music,” she said. “We get to meet new people and create a community, which is our goal.”

Other than a few whines about the “bitter cold,” the musicians told The News after the show that they enjoyed themselves as well.

“It was a fun show – a lot of people sitting down but it is what it is,” said Shaant Hacikyan, the lead singer of Cute Is What We Aim For. “Also, PIKE was rad. We actually had them on the bus before the show,” Hacikyan said.

Adam Weaver, the keyboardist for Lights, said he thought Northeastern was a great venue for a show.

“It’s actually the only outdoor show on the tour, so I was kind of nervous about it,” Weaver said. “But it was actually awesome.”

Weckel said he saw this year’s show as a success, especially because of the collaborative effort by Northeastern groups to pull it off.

“All we tried to do was just provide Northeastern with something that everybody would love to do that’s free,” he said, “because everybody here works so hard at Northeastern and we need a little down time sometimes.”

Weckel said he is already considering improvements for next year, like partnering with more student groups, getting more funding and appealing to a larger demographic with different types of music.

“If we can go bigger, why not?” he said.