Students gathered on Harris field Friday for an afternoon of food and games during IRC’s annual Fall Fest.
“It’s a great program we do every year,” Po Nhia Yang, a sophomore in zoology and co-chair for Fall Fest, said.
According to Yang, the funding for IRC events comes from University Housing. Housing, in turn, gets the funding from students living in residence halls.
Anna Patton, a sophomore in psychology and Spanish and the other co-chair of Fall Fest, said the event had been very successful. She said there had been a “steady stream of people.”
Patton said the event was a chance for students to “take a load off” before all the tests and assignments they would have during crunch time. Yang said it was a good opportunity for students “to have some fun and enjoy campus life.”
Fall Fest offered students fried foods as well as a variety of games and activities.
“I got my funnel cake already. I got my deep-fried candy bar already,” Margo Sauter, a freshman in engineering, said.
Sauter also said she thought the pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game was “really cool.”
Contestants for pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey donned perception-altering ‘beer goggles’ and had to spin around until dizzy before they attempted to pin the tail on the donkey.
There was also a magician there tying balloon creations. Sauter received a balloon hat of Nemo the fish in seaweed.
“Nemo is pretty heavy,” she said.
The event also featured several wing-eating contests throughout the day. Each contest challenged five contestants to eat ten “nuclear-flavored” wings, provided by Wing Zone, as fast as possible.
Matt Rakow, a junior in computer science and applied math, won the afternoon’s first wing-eating contest.
“My hands are totally numb,” Rakow said after finishing his tenth wing, his fingers smeared with sauce. “It was just really painful.”
According to Rakow, it was the second wing-eating contest he had won on campus. While able to eat his way through the nuclear wings, he said he considers lemon pepper the best flavor.
The winner of the second wing-eating contest was Utibe Eyoh, a sophomore in biochemistry.
“I’m from Nigeria and we love spicy food, but that was spicy,” she said.
Winners of the wing-eating contest received buy-one, get-one-free cards from Wing Zone. Eyoh said she planned to use her winnings to have a party and celebrate.