Fiesta draws rave reviews

Students received an opportunity to enjoy the many games, shows and rides available over the weekend during Frontier Fiesta. As part of the entertainment, the UH rugby team allowed participants to throw pies at their favorite players. | Travis Hensley/The Daily Cougar

Another spring, another Frontier Fiesta. This year’s Fiesta was even bigger and better than last year’s, hosting a carnival, tons of live music and rows of food and shops.

Something for everyone to enjoy was available. From free food to gambling, most attendees seemed to enjoy themselves.

Nicole Sopko, a hotel and restaurant manager senior and co-chair of the UC 2010 Initiative, said her favorite part of Fiesta was “seeing all my friends again. My boyfriend’s here so it couldn’t be better,” she said.

As with any college event, fraternities and sororities played a big part in making Frontier Fiesta a success.  Along with the separate tents, each fraternity and sorority performed in variety shows.

“Seeing as it’s my first year at Fiesta, I was actually really exited. I think they (TKE) did a really good job,” TKE alumni Sean Rakzidich said. “I’m actually surprised to see a fraternity come together and actually do all that in a few weeks.”

Fiesta isn’t complete without live music, and this year was no different. Battle of the Bands was held Thursday night, while hip-hop group Clipse headlined Friday night’s performances.

“I do want to say everybody we worked with was cool. The sound guys were great. Mark McKinney’s guys were really cool. Rob Baird’s guys were cool,” Trey Singleton, lead single of the Trey Stapleton band, said. “We had a good time. We had a great set. I think we had fun playing it, and I hope people liked it.”

Although many student enjoyed this weekend’s celebration, some wish the events had been better coordinated.

The Trey Singleton Band was supposed to perform at 6:30 p.m. and play for an hour and a half.  Instead, the band’s show began at 8:30 p.m. was limited to 30 minutes.

“I love waiting three hours to play thirty minutes when it was supposed to be an hour-and-a-half long set. That’s what I love,” Singleton said.

Bands weren’t the only ones affected by inefficient planning.  Some fraternities had problems running a smooth variety show. Although there were separate tent parties, the variety shows were held on only one stage.

“Everything runs smoothly with Frontier Fiesta, except I think the sharing with two (variety) shows in one tent completely ruined it,” history education junior Mike Cadau said. “We had our stuff in one tent, but then we had to take it all out for the next show. That’s extremely laborious for both parties.

“We have to clean up and move all the stuff out.  I think that fraternities and sororities having their own tents for the variety shows would be a good change for Frontier Fiesta next year.”

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