This year, Welcome Week certainly had no shortage of events to entertain the University of New Haven student body. The Office of Student Activities, with help from the Orientation Leaders and various Recognized Student Organizations, sponsored many events to get the freshmen students excited for college. The Condor Carnival this past Saturday, September 31st, sponsored by Lambda Alpha Upsilon in the Quad was one of them.

This year was the fraternity’s third time holding the carnival, and the turnout of students was much greater than in prior years. Among all the booths and rides, the smoothie table, make-your-own street signs, inscribed dog tags, henna tattoos, photo booth, Bungee Trampoline and “Bootcamp” obstacle course were new features this year. Free t-shirts were also handed out, but disappeared fairly quickly as the carnival got into swing.

LAU brought back last year’s popular attractions too, among them inflatables like the Wrecking Ball, a rock climbing wall, dunk tank, sno cones, cotton candy, and an all you can eat barbecue. Fire Science students helped with grilling burgers and hotdogs, while DJ Prestige played his mixes throughout the day. The DJ, a friend of the brothers in LAU, UNH student and former DJ of the carnival really got the crowd moving. The Elite Step team also performed in the center of the Quad, and drew a crowd with their high energy and rhythmic dancing.

Sophomore Christian Tabares, a brother of LAU, mentioned how his fraternity really reached out to other Greek organizations for help with this big event. Many of the culturally based fraternities and sororities were cosponsors, “We wanted to reach out to these populations,” Christian said. It was a way to promote unity among different Greeks on campus. Christian also mentioned his favorite additions to the carnival: the make-your-own signs, and smoothie stand.

Speaking of smoothies, activity at that stand didn’t run too smoothly at the start of the carnival. The line easily started to be the longest one, (no surprise on such a hot day), and the guy in charge of making smoothies didn’t know how to get the right consistency, or how to use the blender.

Another brother of the LAU, Daquan Mervin, talked about how much the carnival improved since its first year, when only basic things were purchased. If the brothers saw a poor turnout with an activity in the previous year, they replaced it for this year’s carnival. Last year, laser tag didn’t fair too well, so that was taken away. Overall though, the carnival expanded to include so many more activities, food, crafts, and adrenaline-building rides. Daquan mentioned how the bootcamp obstacle course and dog-tag making were purchased with a military theme in mind.

Enrique Cruz, president of LAU, thought the dunk tank and street signs would draw the most people in, and next year wants to try and have a ziplining station. Rebecca Podszus is one student who was intrigued by the carnival’s new features. She is a senior and says she usually doesn’t go to “these things,” but the street signs were what got her to come. “I really wanted to make one,” she says, and her friend agreed. Even though the printer broke a couple of times throughout the carnival, students definitely flocked to this stand. “Its great to see everybody come out and enjoy it,” says Cruz.

This year’s Condor Carnival had so many activities to participate in. Although some lines were excruciatingly long, it was great to see such a huge turnout of students. Keep an open mind for the Condor Carnival and what it entails for the future. We’ll just have to wait and see if the ziplining gets incorporated next year; fingers crossed.