Student council hosts the fourth annual Shark Fiesta
As the first month of school comes to an end, StuCo welcomed all students and teachers to its Shark Fiesta on September 30th. This year marked the fourth Shark Fiesta, and the school-wide event provided guests with amazing foods from clubs, and music and performances that awed the audience.
Shark Fiesta had given the clubs a chance to promote themselves and sell goods for charity or club profits. Vicky Zhang (12C), the president of Cookies for Kids, noted that “everything sold out. We were pretty happy about that.” Many of the clubs were satisfied with the outcome of this event and were relieved that it had improved from the last year’s.
President of the Digital Art Club, Connie Wen (12C), however, explained some setbacks that temporarily slowed their process. Connie stated, “Shark Fiesta did not go as smoothly as I had initially anticipated. There were a lot of rushing and preparation to be done. However, once we adjusted to the pace of the festival, it became easier and smoother to operate.”
In comparison to the previous year’s Shark Fiesta, many of the club presidents agreed that this years’ had a better outcome. “This year’s Shark Fiesta was better since we were better coordinated, made more money, and gained more members. It definitely left a bigger impression on me compared to previous year’s since we actually got lights and outlets this year,” Connie explained.
One of the major highlights of Shark Fiesta was the performances that included dances, music, magic shows, and many others.
Gina Bae (10) who sang during Shark Fiesta, stated that she had been very nervous before her performance, but was relieved as she sang on the platform because she could sing for her friends and teachers. She noted that it was “an unforgettable experience!”
Dance performances were also highly anticipated during Shark Fiesta. A member of the dance group, Chanel Hsu (G12), commented that the “performance was good,” however, only a few rehearsals were conducted, and they struggled with synchronization.
In another performance, Matthew Yang (11A) performed magic for the students and teachers. His skills received incredibly positive feedback from the audience. He reflected on his act saying, “The performance went a lot smoother than I expected, because I had prepared all these backup plans against all the potential ways this performance could go wrong.” Although he was fortunate enough to not use any of those plans. He stated that even if the audience seemed to enjoy his magic, he could “still do better with audience engagement,” and that he would gain this necessary element “as [he] accumulate more performance experience in general.”
Although Shark Fiesta seemed like a major success, some complications did arise. According to Michael Lee (12C), the StuCo president, the overwhelmingly loud music had been a disturbance to residents living in the SMIC-I compounds. They took their complaints to the authorities twice and StuCo had to “keep the background music to a minimum.” After the music volume was adjusted, the event carried on with no other technical difficulties.
Michael further commented on behalf of the student council saying, “thank you guys for coming to Shark Fiesta 2018!”
Featured Image- The audience is enthusiastic to support the dancers Photo Courtesy of Ray Chang