Music, food and a large crowd filled Cal State Fullerton\u2019s West Campus Lot Thursday night for Associated Students Inc.\u2019s Banda Night event, celebrating Hispanic culture and bringing people together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Andrea Nunez, a project coordinator for ASI\u2019s student program and engagement department, said the idea for Banda Night came about last school year during the fall semester as a way to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The event was previously held at the Becker Amphitheater, but ASI made the decision to move it to the larger West Campus Lot to accommodate more people.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt got a lot of attendees there so we decided to move it to the big lot,\u201d Nunez said. \u201cDefinitely it\u2019s becoming a legacy event.\u201d<\/p>\n
Food and activities were a major part of this year\u2019s event, with vendors offering a variety of choices for attendees including smash burgers, sandwiches, esquites and tortas.<\/p>\n
Attendees looking to take pictures could go to photo stations, eternizing a night with friends. Between the food vendors, music, dancing and photos, Banda Night had something for everyone.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s event similarly exceeded expectations, with the turnout growing beyond what organizers anticipated. ASI relied on its marketing and social media teams to promote the event via social media to help increase awareness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of right now, we’re definitely trying to figure it out just because we do have a big, big turnout, more than we expected,\u201d Nunez said regarding whether or not the event is expected to return. \u201cNo promises yet, but we’ll definitely figure out a way if we can bring this back or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sociology major Amairany Flores attended Banda Night with friends, making it part of a night out before returning to her schoolwork. Flores wanted to experience her first event at CSUF with her friends while also enjoying the music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had fun, the event was nice,\u201d Flores said. \u201cI was able to hangout with my friends and buy food at the vendors, and we did the photo booth as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
With everything the event offered, Flores said she would attend another ASI event in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Similarly, the event attracted people from outside the CSUF student population.\u00a0 Jessica Rodriguez, who is not a CSUF student, attended after an invitation from her cousin who attends the university.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s worth it. It\u2019s my first time coming, and there\u2019s a lot of people here,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cI like the music, so it’s pretty worth it so far.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rodriguez said she spent her very first CSUF event listening to the music but was interested in visiting some of the vendors later in the evening.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI probably would come again if they do it again,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cI really like listening to banda music because it reminds me of back home.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the event continued, ASI organizers, vendors and attendees remained part of a growing gathering on campus. What began as a small event at Becker Amphitheater a year ago returned in a larger space, with organizers continuing to evaluate how Banda Night could develop for Titans in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Music, food and a large crowd filled Cal State Fullerton\u2019s West Campus Lot Thursday night for Associated Students…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,73414,185884,175399,185885,5344],"class_list":["post-472625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-associated-students-inc","tag-banda","tag-campus-culture","tag-csuf-events","tag-hispanic-heritage-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}