Froshers fest it up. Photo courtesy of BCITSA.
The second annual FroshFest, organized by the BCIT student association (BCITSA), attracted hundreds of students to the Burnaby campus tennis courts on the first Friday of the fall term. Students celebrated with cheap drinks, delicious food, and classic tunes.
According to BCITSA’s official Facebook event page, admission cost $15. One beverage and one burger were included in the price of the ticket. The tunes were free: a DJ played Top 40 hits to warm up the crowd for the Canadian acoustic rockers Sandcastle Theory, who entertained the attendees with covers of all-time favourite songs.
Drinks cost $4 each, but FroshFest attendees had multiple chances to win free beverage tickets throughout the afternoon, according to the BCITSA Chair of Energy Tariq Shobab.
Shobab, who emceed the event, said the contests were not just a fun way to get free beer. According to Shobab, the contests served a greater purpose: to help students meet people outside of their usual social circles.
The munchies were delish at this year’s party. Photo courtesy of BCITSA.
“When asked to find another person that worked the same job as them over the summer, or someone wearing the same underwear as them, a great number of people broke out of their comfort zones and made new (and hopefully long-term) friends,” Shobab shared with The Link.
First-year Rob Newton agreed with Shobab. Newton and his Ironworker colleagues said that FroshFest was a good reminder that BCIT is not just a trade school.
“[The event] builds camaraderie, and you get to see some people from different aspects of this school,” Newton said.
FroshFest did not just bring students from different faculties together, but also had some attendees from different BCIT campuses. Along with many members of the program, Ana Vasques said she takes all of her classes at the downtown campus.
Vasques, a student from the International Student Entry Program (ISEP), said that she was excited about finally attending an event at the Burnaby campus of BCIT. She said that her and her fellow ISEP classmates enjoyed mingling with their Burnaby colleagues, and she is looking forward to attending more events organized by the student association.
“It’s a good way to bring your friends here and have fun,” Vasques told The Link.
Despite the cloudy skies, Shobab said attendance numbers did not suffer a significant decrease from FroshFest 2012:
“The atmosphere was just as lively according to numerous people who had attended last year’s event.”
Pumped students take home their prizes. Photo courtesy of BCITSA.
BCITSA Events Coordinator Ian Morton said that the event organizers believe this year’s event was superior in organization and execution to FroshFest 2012.
“We were happy with what we put out there,” Morton told The Link. “Only promise to market FroshFest more aggressively next year, because it is definitely a “one of a kind” event at BCIT Burnaby.”
Second-year Marketing student Hari Kansel said that although he did not attend FroshFest ’12, he hoped to re-create the great experience of last year.
“In second year, we feel like we should take a little bit more responsibility in making it a good experience for the first-years,” Kansel said.
Kansel mentioned that although the student population of BCIT is a lot smaller than that of Simon Fraser University or University of British Columbia, the level of organization and proportion of the student body attending FroshFest seemed to be “on par”.
Encouraged by the success of the kick-off events, BCITSA is busy planning a lot more student events in the upcoming months.
