Every year, during the week leading up to Carnival, many organizations on campus join forces to begin the process of building their booths. During his six days, students will build, paint and decorate a high-rise structure in the parking lot of Midway's College of Art.
Each organization aims to create the most impressive booth within the given theme. This year's booths were all arcade themed. Games such as “Clash of Clans”, “Super Mario Bros.”, and even pinball were introduced at various booths.
For many organizations, booth preparation begins months in advance. Those considering building a booth had to keep in mind the carnival theme, time constraints, and the organization's general personality and values.
When choosing a booth theme, Phi Delta Theta wanted to choose something that was important to many of its members.
“Clash of Clans is a big part of our fraternity because a lot of people play it,” said Leo Chen, a second-year business administration major.
Aadia Dahl, a first-year business major, said Alpha Phi settled on the “Candy Crush” theme because “it's just who we are, it's just Alpha Phi.”
Other organizations pursued pure possibility. Wesley Tseng, a third-year chemistry student, said Spider-Man has “a lot of avenues, like movies and video games,” and that the Taiwanese Student Association could help with a booth.
During moving and construction, many students work long hours in harsh conditions. During the final days of construction, Pittsburgh's weather presented the biggest obstacle. Heavy rain and flash flooding are not suitable for time-limited booth construction.
The “Jumanji” themed Kappa Kappa Gamma (KKG) booth had design elements that included extensive use of paint.
“When it was raining, it was difficult just to tape it down,” said Sanjana Panwar, a second-year electrical and computer engineering student who worked at the KKG booth.
Another booth by the American Society of Civil Engineers and Theme Park Engineering Group displayed a roller coaster simulator in keeping with the theme of “Roller Coaster Tycoon.”
“We have a lot of sensitive electronic equipment,” said Justin Penn, a fourth-year civil engineering student. “It was a challenge for us to keep all these electronics safe and dry.” They used tarpaulins to keep Motion's platform dry and the simulator was fully functional. .
For Phi Delta Theta's Booth, the weather was both a blessing and a curse. Much of the plan had to be redone due to uncertain structural integrity during the original planning process. However, due to bad weather, the opening was postponed until the next day, allowing organizations to spend time finalizing their booths.
“It actually almost didn’t end,” Tseng said. “If they hadn't pushed it back, we probably wouldn't have been able to open and probably would have been disqualified.” There was no question.
The booth opened to the public on Friday morning, April 14th. On Saturday, several Spring Carnival committees decided on winners in multiple categories. The main categories are sorority, fraternity, and independent, and the overall best booth will also be selected.
In the sorority category, Delta Gamma's “Super Mario Bros.” We won the best booth award. In the fraternity category, Sigma Epsilon won with their “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” booth. The Student Dormitory Council's Animal Crossing booth won the Independent Category Award and the Overall Grand Prize.
Despite long hours, inconvenient weather, and a general desire for more support and time, most students had a positive experience.
Tian Ming, a second-year architecture student, said her favorite part was seeing the Acts2Fellowship “Game of Life” booth integrate with the walls and ceiling installed.
“It’s like, ‘Oh, wow!’ It feels so much bigger than we thought it would,” Min said.
Many people said their favorite thing about Carnival was learning about construction and being able to use power tools, but by far the most popular thing was doing something fun with friends. That was it.
“Even when we're going through a hard time, we're still with the people we love the most,” said Helen Zhu, a business manager at Alpha Phi's booth.
