ASUCI hosted its annual Zotumn Night Market on Ring Road, presenting UCI clubs an opportunity to fundraise for the fall quarter, on Oct. 20.
Students and family members in attendance filled Ring Road as multiple organizations offered food, ranging from boba to spam musubi, and merchandise for sale. Certain clubs, including Fashion and Sneakers at UCI, Students for Socialist Revolution, We (Skin)care, American Red Cross Club at UCI, International Student Pioneer and Art History Undergraduate Association, sold only merchandise. A total of 33 campus organizations were present. Booths near the Student Center ring, like ASUCI’s table, also offered opportunities to play games.
In addition, ASUCI set up a photo wall that students could take pictures in front of. The wall had festive fall-themed balloons and the words “Zotumn Night Market” displayed on it.
Performances were held on the South Student Center Stage, and students delivered songs, group dances and DJ-ed for entertainment.
One of the organizations present, UCI Dragon Boat, spoke to the New University about fundraising for the group.
“The environment of the night market is hectic yet energizing,” Dragon Boat Fundraising Chair and fourth year public health major Chloe Chang said. “While boothing at the night market is a constant loud flurry of motion, it does bring teammates closer to each other since they have to work with and around everyone else volunteering at the booth. In addition, many of them have quite a bit of fun through yelling and advertising.”
Different organizations in attendance were all fundraising in order to raise money for group trips, membership compensation, event funding and more.
“Fundraising helps reduce expensive equipment, race and transportation fees that help our team race in locations such as San Francisco, Tempe in Arizona, and Vancouver.” Chang said. “We understand that this team is full of college students that are here to get fit and involved, not go broke, so [our] board chips in as much as we can [to] keep things affordable so everyone can come out and have a great time without any financial worries.”
Prior to the opening of the market, students lined up for the chance of getting an exclusive free t-shirt and mini tote bag in celebration of the market. Some students claimed to have waited in the line for a minimum of 30 minutes, as the line stretched from the Student Center Ring to the Anteater Learning Pavilion.
Many students expressed that they were ecstatic to try some of the many foods that were for sale by fellow student organizations throughout the market. A first year political science student Sabrina Works discussed how it was exciting to be outside following her first round of midterms.
“It’s like our outing for the week. Midterms just ended, so we’re really happy to get out,” Works said.
In addition to the excitement of a wind-down event, some students said their anticipation for the Zotumn Night Market stemmed from the quality of the events that ASUCI held during Week 0.
A third year earth systems science and education major Jaden Jones stated that seeing how much fun students had at the Aldrich Park After Dark event earlier in the quarter made her a bit more hopeful for the Zotumn Night Market and other events ASUCI intends to hold in the future.
“We didn’t get to see [Aldrich Park After Dark] because we had other organization involvements, but we saw that everyone had a good time and it was just bringing people together again because we don’t do that often — especially since COVID started,” Jones said.
With the variety of entertainment that the Zotumn Night Market had to offer, some students described a sense of joy not just from the event itself, but the activity that it brought along to campus as well.
A second year arts undeclared student Adelaide Hong discussed how despite her busyness, it felt good to see people out and active around campus.
“It’s very hectic. [There are] lots of people, but it’s nice to see a lot of energy around campus at least, right after midterms,” Hong said.
Students can look forward to future night markets, with the next one being held in the winter quarter.
Andie San Luis is a Campus News Intern for the fall 2022 quarter. She can be reached at asanlui1@uci.edu.
Makyla McLeod is a Campus News Intern for the fall 2022 quarter. She can be reached at msmcleod@uci.edu.
