Things were going slowly at 11 a.m. on May 15 at the fourth annual HUB Lawnapalooza, an event which promotes the Student Activities Office.. Only a few RSOs and vendors were setting up tables under a cloudy sky and an empty musical stage. But the event was about to pick up as fast as the weather did.

Since the first event four years ago, it’s gotten bigger and better, said Kirk Heynen, the student activities adviser behind the festival.

“We used to do rides and inflatables,” he said. “This year we decided to nix that and put more money into the music, and I think it was worth it.”

Fans seemed to think so, too.

Lorenzo Tautua served as the opening act. On the otherwise empty stage, he, his ukulele and the microphone looked tiny. Once he opened up his mouth, however, he filled the space with his presence and rich, soulful vocals.

Tautua’s songs, all of which he wrote, mix the music of ‘90s R&B groups like Boyz II Men with that of Hawaiian vocalists like Israel “Iz” Kamakawiwo’ole. A dozen or so die-hard Tautua fans turned out to show their support, but other audience members were clearly moved, too, maybe more by the sheer emotion projected than the occasionally cheesy lyrics. One viewer could even be seen quietly crying behind the event-issued purple plastic Lawnapalooza sunglasses.

Between sets, girls played volleyball on a court measured out by bright twine. Yellow-orange quarter-scale footballs littered the yard. Lawnapalooza had students acting like kids again.

Then Hey Marseilles hit the stage. It was almost funny to see the eight-man band try to fit on a stage five palettes wide and as many deep with nine instruments and corresponding amps and microphones. There was a keyboard, drumset, an accordion, acoustic and electric guitars, a violin, cello, trumpet, and electric bass, in addition to various handheld percussives.

With lead vocals not unlike those of Semisonic’s Dan Wilson, the frontman led a performance of folk-orchestral songs about loneliness, water towers and eternity. Bound only by the wires of the sound system, Hey Marseilles members tapped their feet and danced around, inspiring some enthusiastic swaying in the audience.

The band gets its inspiration from nature, said Keyboardist Phillip Kobernik, who could only be reached briefly between songs.

As Hey Marseilles wound down, more and more people arrived to sit in folding wooden chairs, lean against tables and lie out on the grass to see the headlining act, solo performer Rocky Votolato.

The indie guitar player from Seattle recently returned from a European tour and was one of the most anticipated acts of this year’s Lawnapalooza.

But his actual act looked like nothing more than a Thom Yorke rip-off. Long-winded, painfully obvious lyrics about the Palestine-Israeli conflict far outweighed the amusement brought by a cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

The student-oriented event brought many to appreciate the music, games and to a lesser extent, the food. The weather could not have been brighter, nor could the smiles on the faces of pleased attendees.