Saturday’s Dayglow concert at Midway Travel Plaza attracted more than 6,200 eager and excited attendees with surprisingly no reports of complications, Midway Travel Plaza general manager Joe Bechtold said.

The event sold more than 1,500 tickets on the day of the event, with people showing up from all over the state to buy them. Almost the entire 6,000-plus crowd wore white attire.

“It was absolutely insane,” sophomore Hayley Buck said. “The sheer volume of people there was ridiculous. I lost like half the people I came with. After a million people stepped on my feet I lost my sandals, which was unfortunate because I was barefoot the rest of the night, but whatever.”

The local Target looked like it had been raided because there were almost no white clothes left around 7 p.m., Buck said. She thought the white clothes were perfect for the paint because most people left with paint on their clothes, she also said.

Graduate student Rhianna Andrews shared similar sentiments, saying Dayglow was probably the best concert she’s ever attended.

“The lights were incredible and the energy that went with it was amazing,” Andrews said. “Everyone was really into it and excited and going crazy. The paint definitely helped.”

The music was also a huge attraction. Dayglow focuses mainly on the techno and dubstep genres to supplement the paint party it throws and add to the unique experience, according to its website.

Started on a Florida college campus in 2006, Dayglow has grown tremendously to include a full national tour, with a new international branch currently expanding all over Europe, according to its website.

Dayglow has grown so rapidly in only six years, now calling itself the largest paint party in the world and one of the most distinctive concert experiences available.

“Now, hundreds of thousands of people have witnessed this spectacular show that fuses high-energy music, art, dance and paint into one mind-blowing combination,” its website stated.

Boone County fire officials inspected the venue prior to the event and made sure it could appropriately accommodate such a large crowd while maintaining public safety, Bechtold said. No issues were found prior to the event, and nothing was reported during or after the event.

“The Boone County Sheriff’s Department was also present, but to my knowledge no major incidents occurred,” Bechtold said. “I also met with the fire inspector and went over my safety plan with him. It was really an amazing event. For that amount of people, I was shocked how safe it felt.”

Another peculiar aspect of the event was the transportation used. More than half of the attendees didn’t drive their own vehicles and 12 buses were present. A lot of people also carpooled, Bechtold said.

As unique and fun as students have described the event, others didn’t enjoy the event as much, sophomore Meredith Albair said.

“There was absolutely no breathing room,” Albair said. “I didn’t love it, actually, because there was just too many people. It was good music, but I just think there were way too many people. I probably wouldn’t go again.”

Dayglow is now in Ohio continuing its national tour. The Midway Travel Plaza would be happy to see the event return to Columbia, Bechtold said.

“There aren’t many events that draw that many people,” Bechtold said. “There wasn’t much cleanup since not much paint hit the ground. It actually left on people’s clothes. We’d definitely host it again.”