Fish Fest
Surrounded by floating fish, beach balls and bright neon lights, students dressed in flashy 80s outfits gathered in Grainger this past Saturday for Fish Fest, an annual dance hosted by the student-led theater group on campus, DRAMAT. Upper Daisy Tichenor, a member of DRAMAT, found the event to be a major success. “Fish Fest doesn’t pretend to be a major dance like Back in Black or Whiteout. It’s a more casual environment, and obviously people dress up in 80s clothes. There’s much less pressure on people who attend.” Tichenor stressed the fact that Fish Fest doesn’t necessarily adhere to a mosh pit style of dancing, but rather just provides a venue to enjoy one’s time with friends.
The dance started off slowly, but as more people checked out the scene, many seemed to appreciate the somewhat unfamiliar style of the dance. Senior Maya Pierce said, “Everyone knows 80s music but doesn’t like to admit it. When people are dressed up in ridiculous outfits and listening to music they might be a bit embarrassed to know, it brings out a different side of people.”
“They realize everyone else knows and loves these songs too, and people can let loose and not worry as much about how they look and focus on just dancing, singing and having fun,” Pierce added.
“It was really fun to see everyone decked out in 80s clothing and listening to 80s music is always a blast.”
Board member and interim cohead of DRAMAT Senior Nada Zohayr simply put it, “The dance is successful because it’s a fun chance to wear neon and dance like you’re Madonna.”
DRAMAT spent the majority of time preparing for the dance through advertisement.s. The club’s members put up posters, invited Exonians through a Facebook event, announced the dance at Assembly and sent out a school-wide email. On the night itself, organizers inflateda large number of beach balls and put up decorations.
DRAMAT member and upper George Matheos found the dance to be successful, but not flawless. “Quite a few people came and it seemed like they were all having a great time, and I’d say that those were successes.”
Many members of the group don’t know where the 80s theme originated, but it has shown to be an enjoyable tradition that DRAMAT continues to support for their allotted dance.
“I enjoyed it, though I happen to also like dances more similar to Back in Black as well,” Matheos said. He also noted that the dance was more interesting as it wasn’t the standard mosh pit type, which certainly made it more enjoyable for people who don’t like that compact style of dance.
Although the event was a great way for students to unwind for the weekend, Fish Fest did find some technical difficulties throughout the night as the DJ was booked for the wrong weekend. Thus, DRAMAT students resorted to kicking off the dance with a Spotify playlist they found; however, it seemed that many dancers were not completely into it. As a result, Director of Student Activities Joanne Lembo along with Tichenor, Pierce and Matheos DJ'd for the night by queueing songs on their own with special requests from dancers in the crowd. The group put together suggestions of the many 80s songs that they liked and played them in sequence.
Matheos explained that the process did not go perfectly smoothly, as there were a few times when songs were accidentally switched to the next track and the gaps in between resulted in some awkward moments for dancers waiting for the transition to end. “But overall, the crowd seemed much happier with the music from this point onwards, and the dance became much more lively,” Matheos said.
Tichenor agreed. “Once we started choosing well known songs people really started dancing and having fun,” she said.
Pierce added, “All things considered, I think we did a good job. Would a real DJ have been better? Absolutely. But we did the best we could.”
Upper Maddie Shapiro said, “It was really fun to see everyone decked out in 80s clothing and listening to 80s music is always a blast.”
In respect to how the dance could be improved in following years, Pierce would love to have a real music coordinator for the event as she found that the flow of music really does have a huge impact on the dance. Tichenor said, “I’d also want better advertisement because I’m not sure many people knew what to expect, although that could have been part of its charm.”
Additionally, for next year, there has been a rumor tossed around about hosting a dance based on a different decade. Although this is merely speculation, it would certainly be interesting to see the difference in the event’s social atmosphere based on the style of dance.