Woman’s soccer team playing Connect Four at Spirit Fest. PN Photo/Anayah Peterson
By: Shania Crosby, Reporter
Residence Hall Association hosts an annual Spirit Fest during homecoming week. Students attend ed at the UC Lawn with friends listening to music and playing various activities.
Spirit Fest was from 6-9 p.m. The RHA Executive board runs this event by enlisting help from officers and members of various housing facilities.
Spirit Fest had several activities that students could go do such as: Big Baller Wipeout, inflatable slide, music and food. The DJ at the event was DJ K-Smooth. A gaming truck also provided “Just Dance” on the Nintendo Switch outside of it, Playstation and the Xbox on the inside.
When it comes to attendance at the event, it was estimated that there were more than 200 students at the event.
The food of choice for the event was Walking Tacos. The RHA served the food out to students. The Homecoming Court was present at the event socializing with their peers. They were also promoting themselves for nominations for Homecoming Queen and King.
The last RHA annual Spirit Fest was in 2019 because there was not one in 2020 due to COVID-19. This year’s games and inflatables were different from the past year.
In the past year, RHA provided a bull ride game for students to get on. Since Covid 19 it has been a struggle to get students engaged with each other. The Spirit Fest has made an impact on the social aspect during homecoming.
“This event was so much fun. I thought I would not have stayed as long as I did, but I really enjoyed myself alot. I am happy we get to have some fun outside of the classroom,” Alliyah Escoghfy said.
Escoghfy really enjoyed the events with her friends. It allowed them to get together at a fun event rather than just schoolwork.
Other students like Eric Flores, a freshman, enjoyed testing out his luck with the Big Baller Wipeout. He made several attempts trying to complete the Wipeout like course with his friends cheering him on.
“I had so much fun on the inflatables, I felt like I was on wipeout. The walking tacos were a good choice of food. It has gotten gone so quickly,’’ Laterika Cratch said
RHA E-board had their hall council members and several Resident Advisors stationed at different areas to have students supervised at them. There was a DJ playing music by the Jones Center building and the Tommy Hawk statue.
A majority of the athletes from the many sport teams at UNCP came to support Spirit Fest, especially athletes from the women’s soccer team. The Greek Life fraternities and sororities that attended the event were Alpha Phi Alpha, Omega Psi Phi, Sigma Gamma Rho, and Phi beta Sigma.
“This was something nice to come to after long practice. I miss the walking tacos, but I heard it was good,” Ray Faison said, a freshman on the men’s basketball team.
He missed the walking tacos that RHA catered at the event, but was able to enjoy the other activities.
Homecoming allowed students to relax after their classes while sporting their interesting anything but a backpack for the school’s spirit day