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.”
Frontier Fiesta truly sucked this year. Firstly, no major artists were booked. Secondly, no tejano artists were booked. Thirdly, beer prices were raised by two dollars (as if they weren’t high enough!), alcohol for the general public was done by 10PM!, almost everyone there was simply there for a private party. Sure, I know enough people to get into the private parties, but let’s not make this a simple pan-hellenic event.
Frontier Fiesta was a disaster as far as I’m concerned. Bigger and better than last year is a joke!
I’m just glad that parking services was able to take advantage of Frontier Fiesta taking up 400 student parking spots. I’ve never seen so many tow trucks on campus! All the dumb students who didn’t know where to park didn’t stand a chance.
I do feel sorry for all those poor parking enforcement personal that probably need a new pair of shoes this week because of wearing all the rubber off their soles last week—handing out all those parking tickets.
Great Job Parking Services!
What a great way to raise money for the school! They should have several Frontier Fiestas each year – imagine how much money could be collected from hapless students!
Yup, I’m glad the fraternities could have their parties at the expense of students who are focused on academics.
Since when is UH frat friendly anyway? This is a university first, frat house second. Sorority girls can go get wasted and picked up at a bar, I want to get to class.
Hmmm….. Frat parties, sororities…. Sounds like college stuff to me. And even though i’m not in a frat, it’s good to see UH at least trying to step up in their quest to provide a tier-one all around university experience. Could they have planned it better, of course. But there was a great deal of student participation this year which is nothing but encouraging. It won’t be too long before UH thankfully sheds the commuter image and becomes a place to do more than just go to class and go home. Sheesh, its a university for crying out loud, not a high school.
And yeah, if all you want going on at your school is classes, then there are some nice community colleges that have exactly what you’re looking for.