Hundreds of Aggies will gather at an off campus location Sunday to kick off the beginning of a two and a half month season of Bonfire. 

First Cut, Student Bonfire’s kick off for the fall, marks the beginning of cut season which will eventually lead to stack season and ultimately Burn Night, the ignition of Bonfire. During the event, Aggies will meet at an off campus location to begin cutting down trees to be used to build Bonfire the night before the Thanksgiving football game against LSU.

With this year being the largest incoming freshman class, the Student Bonfire staff expects a large turnout for First Cut, said Zachary Gregory, Senior Red Pot and mechanical engineering senior.

“Usually for First Cut we expect about 800 to 1,000 people to come,” Gregory said. “We just had our orientation for First Cut, and we already had a lot of people excited to come out.”

Each year Student Bonfire clears out land offered by former students or residents of the community — which benefits the residents by cutting down trees and Student Bonfire by providing woods to extract the logs that make up the Bonfire.

Usually the search for a site begins early and often proves to be a challenge, but Bonfire members reach out to former students to see if they have any land that needs clearing, said Senior Red Pot and sociology senior Kenneth Searl.

Gregory said sometimes the members of Bonfire upper leadership don’t have to ask for help finding a site.

“People will call us sometimes,” Gregory said. “They’ll often call asking if we needed a place to clear out or a site to work on; they’re all wanting to to help.”

Searl said people attending First Cut should be prepared for a long day.

“It’s an all day event, and it’s going to be hot,” Searl said. “It’s the largest event of the year, and it’s going to be long — so come out prepared to work.” 
First Cut starts at 8 a.m. Sunday on Sadberry Rd. in Bryan, Texas.