The Cathedral of the Ozarks was buzzing with excitement on Nov. 15 as John Brown University hosted its annual Mock Rock, a thrilling lip-sync battle organized by Student Events and Activities. The event brought students, faculty and staff together for a night of fun, creativity and energetic performances, with cash prizes of $750, $500 and $250 for the top three acts.

As in past years, the event started at 7: 30 p.m. and gates opened at 7:00 p.m. This year, however, there was a surprising long line waiting outside of the Cathedral, something uncommon in earlier Mock Rock years.

“We got to witness a lot of personal victories with this show. For the first time in a while, we had to open the balcony for more seating! The cathedral was filled in less than 15 minutes which was incredible to see,” the Entertainment Director for SEA and main coordinator of Mock Rock, Ainsley Lafferty, said.

People were not only eager to attend Mock Rock, but also to participate.

“SEA had more acts audition than we could accept. That's a really good problem to have! After auditions ended, every SEA director watched the videos of all the auditioning acts. Then we, as a team, made the decisions about who to accept. The process was the same for MCs! We received our MC auditions, and all watched the videos they sent in. Then we voted on our choices,” Lafferty said.

A total of nine acts performed, entertaining and bringing laughter to the public, alongside the MCs, Brennan Montalbano and Adeline Gruen, who kept the energy high and the show running smoothly. The first-place winner was NDEBT, exclusively formed by residents of J. Alvin, who had the crowd cheering and captivated from start to finish with elaborate choreography and Nurse Rhonda as their special guest.

“My favorite part of Mock Rock was everything, being on stage for the performance and hearing the crowd’s reaction to Nurse Rhonda coming on stage and joining our act. It was fun and exciting! Nurse Rhonda is a legend,” Micah Dahlsten, member of NDEBT said.

In second place, the TrebleMAYkers, a team made up of Mayfield Hall’s Residence Life staff, impressed everyone with their talent and creativity, having JBU President Chip Pollard, his wife Corey, Anne Tohme and Keith Jagger as their special guests.

Third place went to Rock’n’Twist, a group performance that included multiple freshmen students.

“Participating in Mock Rock was unforgettable. I could never have imagined having the entire university's attention for several minutes. Despite the fear that something might go wrong, you quickly get carried away by the excitement and the cheers of the audience. We had the support of many friends, but I kept my expectations low and just let the results surprised me. I was genuinely surprised by how well the audience received us. It’s the kind of experience you have once and then cherish forever,” member of the team Roberto Martinez said.

He also highlighted the contributions of his teammates noting their hard work in shaping the final performance and how third place was a personal victory for them as first year students.

Besides the three winners, all of the other acts reflected the hard effort and work the participant put in them. Although Mock Rock is an exciting event that brings joy and hype to students and visitors, the time and preparation it takes can be challenging.

“My biggest challenge was the stress dress rehearsal brought. Because I did most of the background work for the show, I had a lot of stress during our big practice,” Lafferty said.

Acts also took their time preparing and choreographing their performance, especially large groups.

“The most difficult part of Mock Rock from my perspective is finding times to practice. We had a lot of people in our group so scheduling could be difficult, but we had a committed group and made it work,” Dahlsten said.

Mock Rock 2024 can be considered a success, months of preparation paid off and brought a night full of music, color and cherished memories for all.

Article by Neskarly Marin & Tai Urbina

Photo Courtesy of Ruby Wynn