This year’s annual Harvard-Yale pep rally will be attempting to get you all excited and what-not for this weekend’s game, something we hear people do at other schools.

But this year, no Girl Talk or anyone of his ilk will be in the offing, part of an attempt to cut costs, and, you know, prevent the rally ending in a complete fiasco.  Instead, organizers say they will be taking the rally back to “its roots.”  Oh, and they’ve also procured a stage that won’t collapse.

Thursday’s rally promises a mixture of student performances, a “hotdog bulldog eating contest”, and a slight variation on the standard HUDS spread, a move College Events Board Vice-Chair James A. McFadden ’10 said administrators thought was necessary at an event where students might be drinking.  So should you decide to get sloshed Thursday, there will be free mac and cheese, clam chowder, and Boloco on hand at the Yard.

What this year’s organizers have to say: after the jump!

Organizers this year are working under the shadow of what one student called the most “unsuccessful successful show ever” that saw thousands of students turn out for a highly anticipated show that ended in a nearly collapsed stage and one very pissed DJ Girl Talk.

But organizers say they’ve learned their lesson.

“We're pumped this year! It’s going to be miles and away more successful than last year,” McFadden said. “We learned a lot from last year about how we're supposed to plan.”

But will students show without a big-name performer?

“I’m very excited at this point. I think it's going to be a great show, but I’m a bit nervous about attendance,” CEB Chair Kevin M. Mee ’10 said. “I’m hoping a lot of people will show regardless.”

Today and tomorrow, organizers will be launching a PR-blitz in and around the yard to promote the show.  At the Science Center, they will be playing the entries of the “10,000 Men of Harvard Re-Mix Challenge.”  Hopefully Perhaps even drowning out the UC candidates’ vote mongering.

The event will kick off at 8:30 with a “FAN-tastic Freshman” contest, so get there early to laugh at the freshmen before they become disillusioned.

“It will be pretty funny for the upperclassmen filing into the yard,” McFadden said, referring to the freshmen’s competition.

The CEB’s portion of the event will begin at 9 and will include appearances by Expressions, the BMF Steppers, the Crimson Dance Team, the Glee Club, and the Harvard Cheerleaders, among others.

“There will be of more hating on Yale this year than a concert—we’re getting back to the basics of destroying Yale,” McFadden said. “So it will be getting back to the roots of what a pep rally is.”