LoveFest 2022 is a mental healthcare event for UCA students hosted by UCA’s Sociology Club and Alpha Kappa Delta Honors Society that will take place at the Student Center Amphitheater Thursday, April 28, 2022, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

The festival will center around harmony, mindfulness and radical self-care. 

It will start with student, campus and community mental health care and stress relief information displays that students can visit at 11 a.m. 

At 11:30 a.m., opening remarks will be made by UCA President Houston Davis and Angela Webster, the associate vice president for institutional diversity and inclusion at UCA. 

From 12 p.m. to 12:30 p.m., Adam Frank will put on a Tai Chi demonstration on the lawn between McAlister Hall and Harrin Hall. 

From 1 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., UCA Campus Outdoors will host a frame challenge. 

From 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m., Ashley Cooksey will lead Yoga for Mindfulness on the lawn between McAlister Hall and Harrin Hall. 

From 2 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., Scott Lewis will lead Healing through Poetry. 

Matthew Moore, an advisor for UCA’s Sociology Club, said the idea of putting together LoveFest came about in 2019. 

“Students in the Sociology Club and the AKD Honors Society wanted to hold an event that would emphasize caring and love for all people,” Moore said. 

Junior Ally Shook, one of the primary organizers of the event, said the overall purpose of LoveFest is to “promote awareness for mental health on our campus and in the community, but also just to bring people together for some fun.” 

According to Moore, “The goal of LoveFest is to demonstrate that all people are valuable in our society and should be loved,” Moore said. “We have seen many bills, laws, tweets and so on that are aimed at dividing us. The club wanted to show that we all have worth and what makes a great community is embracing our differences.” 

This is the second LoveFest that has been held at UCA. The first one, which was focused on peace, took place in 2020 and was much smaller because of COVID-19 protocols. 

“This year, the club wanted to focus on mental health,” Moore said. “Coming out of the pandemic, many students, faculty and staff are feeling overwhelmed. The students this year wanted to show the UCA community that it is okay to feel overwhelmed, anxious and depressed about the adjustments that we have experienced over the past two years. The club wants to provide a safe and caring environment for people to come at the end of the year to get information on mental health and to just have fun being part of the UCA and Conway communities.” 

Music at LoveFest 2022 will be provided by Austin Orvin, with Thomas Williams — the dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences — as a guest DJ. 

Photos and videography at the event will be done by Alex Blankenship. 

The event is sponsored by the Department of Sociology, Criminology and Anthropology and the Schedler Honors College. 

There are several collaborators for the event, including African/African American Studies, Green Bear Coalition, UCA Autism and Neurodiversity Alliance Table, UCA Bear Essentials Food Pantry, UCA Living Unleashed and more.