Frontier Fiesta came to a close at 1 a.m. Sunday with concerts by VerseCity and Justin Van Sant as well as an awards ceremony to finish off the three-day festival.
UH’s annual Frontier Fiesta took over two parking lots for March 21 to Saturday, offering free concerts and activities to students. | Nichole Taylor/The Daily Cougar
The Fiesta was considered an all around success by the board, but public opinion was mixed. However, there were a few visitors unaffiliated to UH, like Lauren Kelly who tagged along with her alumni friends, who had a positive view of the festival.
“It’s a great way to get the community of UH together. It’s set up nicely, organized, and a lot of fun,” said first-time guest Lauren Kelly.
The fiesta had a wide turn out for the musical performances all three nights, and a record goal of $11,500 was raised in scholarship funds.
“The turnout for Frontier Fiesta was awesome. With the new location, everyone who came out to Fiesta was able to move throughout the city in an effective and efficient way,” said Frontier Fiesta chair Jeff Syptak.
“I firmly believe we were able to get the crowds we did because of the new location and because of the curiosity of what Frontier Fiesta is all about. Throughout the week, students, faculty, staff, and alumni, saw our city come alive and the progress we were making.”
The new location was originally considered a point of contention for many students; but come Frontier Fiesta weekend many expressed a liking of the location due to its accessibility and the fact that many students were able to find the festival simply from walking by the city.
With the festival now over, the Frontier Fiesta Board will be electing a new chairman and planning for 2014.
“This year, we have built a great relationship with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and hopefully we can continue this relationship and make it stronger. Our family fun day still has more room to grow and with this renewed partnership with HLSR, it will continue to be bigger and better,” Syptak said.
“The last thing I would like to see improved is finding more items for students who are not involved in an organization. This year we had a university tent which all were welcome, but I do not think students utilize it enough. There is much more growth there.”
Some guests agreed with Syptak, saying that there was a lack of interesting things to do, yet others said that they loved what the festival offered.
Many of the ones who were most excited about the Fiesta were the Greek organization members who gave variety performances throughout the weekend.
“(Frontier Fiesta is) really awesome because tons of organizations from all around the university come together and have a common goal to raise money for the university that we love,” said communications sophomore and sorority student Amy Davis.
“Although we are separate, we love the same thing.”
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