Rock the Vote visits campus Oct. 15

The campus will play host to Rock the Vote‘s Voter Registration Experience Bus Tour on Friday, Oct. 15. Madison is the final stop on the five-month, 50-city tour aimed at registering as many new voters as possible before the Nov. 2 election and increasing the turnout of young voters at the polls.

The event is being co-sponsored by the Vote 2004 Coalition, Associated Students of Madison and the UW Homecoming Committee, with support from the Office of the Chancellor. It will take place rain, snow or shine on Library Mall from noon-5 p.m., and will feature musical performances by breaking artists, including Sarah Hudson and Dan Dyer. There also will be brief candidate question-and-answer segments and interactive displays.

Several student organizations and national groups with a focus on specific issues important to young voters will staff tables on the perimeter of the mall.

The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, a nonprofit state-of-the-art mobile recording and multimedia studio, will also be a part of the festival. It provides visitors with free, hands-on experiences using the latest audio and video technology, gear and products.

Ben and Jerry’s, one of the tour’s national sponsors, will hand out free samples of “Primary Berry Graham,” a new flavor created especially for Rock the Vote.

The 700 and 800 blocks of Langdon Street (between North Lake and North Park streets) will be closed to all traffic from 6 a.m.-6 p.m., with the exception of emergency vehicles, Wisconsin Union delivery trucks and production vehicles. During that time, public parking will not be allowed in those two blocks. Lot 1 at the Memorial Union also will be closed.

Van Galder buses will pick up and drop off passengers on University Avenue in front of the Elvehjem Museum that day. Badger buses will load and unload only at the company’s South Bedford Street depot during the street closure, but there will be a 7:40 p.m. pick-up at Memorial Union.