Jose Gonzalez-Campelo/The Cougar
Recently, the Frontier Fiesta committee announced the theme for this year’s event: “In My Fiesta Era.” Serving as an homage to Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, the theme might be fun for the Swifties in the house, but it leaves a lot to desire for any students that aren’t all in for our girl Tay Tay.
For one thing, how are you supposed to dress for a “Taylor Swift” themed Fiesta? There’s a lot of notable aesthetics from Taylor’s discography that you could draw from, but it’s hard to not feel like the options are a bit limiting.
You’ve got the adorkable glasses-wearing look from “You Belong With Me” or the gorgeous white dress from “Style,” not to mention her various outfits from the most recent album, but it’s hard to pick one theme that really unifies all of them.
Even if you just go off looks from the Eras tour, it’s a lot of sparkles, crop tops and purple, which feels hard to evenly apply onto Fiesta’s usual red hues and cowboy-inspired aesthetic.
Beyond that, Taylor’s looks only work on a certain kind of person, namely the gals and the gays. All love to my straight dudes trying to dress for the festival this year, because there aren’t exactly a lot of notably dressed Swiftie men to draw inspiration from — unless you count Travis Kelce.
In defense of the organizers, Fiesta hasn’t always had a super fleshed-out theme, so “In My Fiesta Era” is likely more of a cute tag line than anything else. Taylor Swift doesn’t even feature in any of the marketing — but maybe that’s a sign that Fiesta has the potential to go in a different direction.
After all, this year’s show features an exciting lineup of major artists including Atlanta’s JID as the headliner. It’s sure to draw the kind of crowd that hasn’t been seen at Fiesta in some time, and maybe a more creative theme would help boost those numbers even more.
Frontier Fiesta is for everybody, and the theme should be something that should work for everybody. Previous years have used broad themes such as “Out of this World” to encourage Coogs to get creative with “Space Age Silver” colors on their outfits or cute accessories like astronaut helmets and alien antennas. Even in years with a more toned down theme, they’ve always strived to stay true to Houston, masterfully mixing hip hop and Western aesthetics.
Of course, you can’t please everyone, and the job of selecting a good theme is no doubt difficult, but this year’s pick feels like it should’ve been run by a few more students to get a second opinion. After all, there was a great pick available right there.
I mean, come on, what’s more perfect than silver-y cowboy hats that represent a Houston legend who’s making major waves and coming back to her roots this year? We could have had an immensely hype “Cowboy Carter” themed Fiesta, for crying out loud!
As it is, this year will likely be fun regardless, as Fiesta always is. But in the future, it might be good for the organizers to try something new. Fiesta is already amazing, but with a little more imagination, it has the chance to become something truly memorable.
Malachi Key is a journalism senior who can be reached at [email protected]
