As semester one ends and we head towards exams, the Guild’s End of Semester Bash at the Curtin Tav last Friday had a massive turnout and provided students with a much-needed stress-reliever.
At the start of the event, most people could be found gravitating towards the warmth of the Tav and the video games found within, such as Mario Kart, Dance Dance Revolution, and Guitar Hero.
As happy hour ended, the drinks continued to flow and the Guild Courtyard, now transformed into the impressive Rave Cave, was pumping as it filled with end of semester revelry.
Photo: Curtin Guild.
The popularity of the Rave Cave played a huge role in the event’s success, with a peak of over 750 attendees at one point, and shows the Guild is listening to feedback from the students, says Guild Vice President of Activities Athina Hilman.
Athina Hilman believes the huge turnout just shows the need students have to unwind at the end of the semester .Photo: Curtin Guild.
“We wanted to make it more spacious, and we listened to the feedback from the Toga Party and people wanted more space,” she says.
The lines for drinks at this semester’s Toga Party were at times half an hour long, so for this event the licensing was extended, and a pop-up was set up in the Guild Courtyard.
It was Athina’s first big event as the VPA, and she was initially worried about the turnout and whether people would enjoy it, but says she was glad that people had a great time and resonated with it.
“A success for me is having people excited to be part of the event. Like people gathering and dancing”, she says. “Heaps of clubs came down mixing with other groups so there was this big sense of hanging out and having a party, which you rarely see on campus.”
She says her favourite part of the night was how the Guild Courtyard transformed for the event.
“I walk through there every day and people are always eating microwave food and working or studying. It’s a quiet place where people keep to themselves. So, when I saw it become the Rave Cave, it was just nuts to me, it looked like a proper festival.”
Some club members from the Electronic Music Appreciation Society opened the event before artists like SHANN, YUNG SLY, and TRIPLETT continued through the night. Curtin E-sports also collaborated by running the Mario Kart tournament in the Tav and supervised the other games that were on offer, which Athina says people loved and went off like crazy.
Prizes were on offer for the winner of the Mario Kart and Just Dance tournaments. Photo: Andrew Williams.
Curtin E-sports President and Computer Science major Ben Burgess has been a member of the club since 2019 and says the night went perfectly in what they were trying to achieve.
“Just having people have participate without any fuss, people just being able to essentially pick up a controller and just free play whatever they want to,” he says.
The club meets every Wednesday at the Tav during semester for game night, but Ben says the turnout out on Friday was better than expected, with a lot of new faces coming down.
“We always like seeing new people come down and join in. We try to be more casual than competitive because the competitive people tend to come anyway,” he chuckles.
Photo: Andrew Williams.
Athina confirms more Guild events in the future will feature collaborations with clubs, especially after the success of the Rave Cave and the gaming setup.
Athina explains that mid-year events at the end of semester one and the start of semester two usually do not get a big turnout due to the cold but says if the Rave Cave is anything to go by, that might be changing.
“We want to do something like a start of semester party because obviously there is a bit of a demand for it, and I think people want to be engaging with the uni now that COVID’s done,” she says.