Big Red Carnival
The second annual Big Red Carnival (BRC) took place last Saturday night in Love Gymnasium. The entire Exeter community enjoyed the ice-cream, cotton candy and popcorn, games by Mini Midway and performance by Circus Dubois.
In the center of the gym, a four-legged Aerial rig displayed Aerial silk and suspended hula hoops. Beside this, tightropes and bins held everything from juggling balls to a unicycle. Along the sides of the gym were several different free games that gave away prizes or booths: whack-a-mole, ring toss, balloon darts, strength tester, break-a-plate, a photo booth and caricature artists.
The main performance featured juggling, unicycling riding, Aerial silk dancing, hula hooping, contortionism, slack and tight wire walking, sword-swallowing and stilt walking by Circus DuBois and Todd Barker.
Michael DuBois is a first generation circus performer, and his girlfriend Viktoria Gimmy is a fifth generation performer and Broadway actress in the musical Pippin. DuBois grew up in upstate New York and first became interested in performing after attending a Ringling Brothers’ show when he was four years old. “I have always loved the Circus,” he said.
They performed at Exeter at the beginning of the summer for the employee party, and the act was well-received. The Assistant Director of Student Activities Kelly McGahie then thought it would be a good idea to bring them back to campus for the BRC. “[The employee party] was so successful, and since last year was our first Big Red Carnival there were things that needed to be improved,” she said. “I thought ‘oh this would actually be a great event for the students too.’”
McGahie spoke with DuBois ahead of time, and they both agreed that having small shows throughout the night would allow students to both see the shows and go to the surrounding booths. However, something McGahie noticed was that after the first show a large number of students left. She believes this was because the students thought that the first show was the only show. “[This confusion] was very much what I understood and what I heard as feedback, so if we were going to do this again next year we would do another midway and maybe even spice it up a little bit more and have one big show at the end.”
“It was a wonderful way of bringing people together and overall it was a lot of fun.”
Many students enjoyed the wide range of activities offered at the carnival. Senior Caroline Davis and lower Sophie Faliero both mentioned the cotton candy and the photo booth as two highlights of the event, while senior Graham Rutledge particularly enjoyed the balloon dart booth and the plate breaking station. “It was satisfying to break things,” Rutledge said. For upper Kate Babcock, the “food, performance and prizes” were the best parts of the carnival, and upper Athena Stenor “liked pretty much everything that was there.”
The performance proved a favorite among many, including upper Grace Duisberg who remarked that she “enjoyed the acrobatics show and tricks the most.” Upper Silas Lane described the acts as “really cool,” especially the sword-swallowing and the contortionist, and upper Julian Perez, who also felt the show was “cool to watch,” commented that “it was something new we don’t really see at Exeter.” The performance impressed Upper Jackson Parell, who said that the performers “were very professional and put on a good show.” The addition of the performance made the carnival better than last year’s, according to Babcock. Faliero, who recalled leaving the previous carnival early to go to Stillwells instead, said that this year, she “did have fun.” She found the acts entertaining and said that it was “funny to watch friends try to tightrope walk and hit darts at balloons.”
However, some students noticed that the performance made it more difficult to socialize with others at the event. Perez explained that last year, the carnival served as a type of “meet and greet for the whole school where you can easily meet up with new people” and pointed out that there was not as much social interaction this year because it was based on a single show. Likewise, Lane felt that it “wasn’t as interactive as last year,” where there were more activities as opposed to the professional circus. Stenor agreed, describing the carnival as “a little slow at times” and recalling that there was more to do at the previous one. Davis, who left because the performance “got old,” added that it was an “okay” start to the year but “could have been better.”
Echoing these complaints, Parell suggested that there should have been “more carnival games to accommodate for the larger audience.” Lower Hanna Pak also believed that more booths would have solved the problem of waiting in long lines, which Duisberg listed as her least favorite aspect of the event. Pak explained that there were was a large attendance, but “not a whole lot for them to do without waiting in a long line,” which was a downside of the carnival.
Nevertheless, most students felt that overall, the event was a successful and fun start to the school year. Parell said it “brought people together, returning and new, and demonstrated Exeter’s school spirit.” For Faliero, the event was an opportunity to meet new people and even make friends. “It really helped new people meet others, for instance I made a lot of new lower friends because of it,” she explained. The “relaxed atmosphere” was a great way to bring people together, according to Babcock, and Pak pointed out that it allowed students to socialize and meet others “without being too pressured to interact.” Parell concluded that “it was a wonderful way of bringing people together and overall it was a lot of fun.”