Spring Fiesta brings the LAU community together

For the weekend of May 16-17, LAU’s Beirut campus hosted the Spring Fiesta carnival attracting over 5,000 visitors for games, food stands and live music.

June 22, 2009

Beirut-campus visitors enjoyed outdoor games at the Spring Fiesta.

An archery compound was set up at the middle gate area.

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The best way to welcome spring is with an outdoor party, and for the weekend of May 16–17, LAU’s Beirut campus transformed into the Spring Fiesta carnival attracting over 5,000 visitors of all ages and interests for games, food stands, live music concerts and bungee jumping.

The Beirut campus was transformed for the event, which was organized by the Student Affairs Office, the Guidance Office and the Student Council to offer the LAU community and friends an opportunity to have fun with music, food and games.

The lower campus hosted food stands set up by popular local restaurants, as well as a stage where 13 student bands held live concerts.

The upper campus featured an array of games, at the middle gate area an archery compound was set up, and the parking area was reserved for one of the main attractions, a 70-meter bungee jumping crane.

“We wanted to see the LAU community together … not just to work together and see each other at courses, but have a family relationship,” says Dr. Tarek Na’was, LAU Dean of Students in Beirut.

Na’was says everyone had fun because the organizing committee catered to adults as well as children of all ages. “We had the nursery for 1-2 year-old children. For 5-10 year-olds we had swimming, running, soap football, and remote-control car races. For teenagers we had 30 Kermes games where they won coupons and gifts. We also had games for the grown-ups such as bungee jumping or a zip-line,” he explains.

Close to 250 volunteers worked on the project, according to Na’was. “We started working on it months ago,” he says. “We had a very enthusiastic group of students, the Student Council, [student] club members and the Student Affairs administration.”

“The students were running the show. We worked from 7 a.m. the first day to 9 p.m. the day after, night included. Is it tiring? Definitely. But it’s so nice to see people happy,” Na’was adds.

Although this is the first year LAU held the event, Riman Jurdak, project coordinator from the Guidance Office in Beirut, says it had been planned for the previous two years but was canceled in 2007 and 2008 due to the war and political instability.

Clearly the success of the Spring Fiesta means it’s not the last LAU will hear of it. Na’was says the organizers have already started planning the 2010 event.

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