28 November 2007

Intro Fiesta 2007

Every new academic year brings with it a great rush of excitement and anticipation for what is to come. So the International Students’ Committee, which has 40 international students on it, and myself organised Intro Fiesta to start the year with a big bang!

Intro Fiesta is known as one of the Students’ Union most successful events. People’s adventurous side is awaken with this extraordinary club experience.

At the start of the party there were face painters ready to put any national flag you wanted on your face and body. So many people were having their face painted with their country's flag on their face and so many were different! In the Octagon Foyer, where the event was taking place, there was colourful Vietnamese art and accessories sold for a Vietnamese village charity. On the other side you could have delicious Turkish delight and tea and be photographed with Turkish belly dancers! Outside there was a Shisha tent beautifully decorated with Persian materials, which was very popular!

“Sheffield’s Global Village” was an amazing feature of National Societies putting on traditional games that awakened your imaginative and fun side! Monsoon Magic put on a Turban and Sari tying competition, China town had an amazing Chinese calligraphy workshop and had a chopstick picking up ping-pong ball competition! There was Japanese game of origami and next to that was a Malaysian feature with a very competitive jumping game! The Latin Quarter was full of huge Mexican Hats that everyone tried on.

In the main room, people were queuing for Henna tattooing and students were dancing really hard to get onto the next level in the Dance Arcade game. Gladiator Duels and the Rodeo Bull were the main attractions and everybody had a go trying to battle it out with each other and the bull! If you fell off, which everybody did, you could always come back later and have another go. I tried many times!

On stage we had many performances such as the well heard of band Bison, a fantastic Capoeira demonstration and an energetic Kenyan dance. To finish the night, DJs Vish and Shiv took the night away with world tunes that had people partying away until very late!

It was amazing to see how students from all over the world came together in one night and had the time of their lives! It was our pride and joy to see such an event be a massive hit with international students and we hope that they come along to other international student events throughout the year.

Marika Panayiotou
International Student’s Officer