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Students walk through FestiFall to club booths around the Diag Wednesday afternoon. Akul Gunukula/DAILY. Buy this photo.
More than 900 student organizations, community vendors and departments on campus gathered for the University of Michigan’s annual Festifall Tuesday and Wednesday to advertise to students.
Along with these organizations, politicians including U.S. Senate Candidate Abdul El-Sayed, Democratic Attorney General candidate Eli Savit and Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor were on campus to interact with U-M students.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA freshman Isaac Brenner, Festifall attendee and campus organizing fellow for Abdul’s Senate campaign, said the amount of people surrounding El-Sayed was shocking.
“Once he got here, oh my God,” Brenner said. “I mean, he was the center of attention — naturally.”
With Michigan’s midterm elections coming up on Nov. 3, University’s chapter of College Democrats hosted El-Sayed at their table to speak with students. Brenner said El-Sayed’s connection to the University and Ann Arbor made his presence especially significant.
“Seeing someone who’s an alumni here — who lives in the city — come back and be connected with all of us, it is really special,” Brenner said. “It was the students who were especially excited to see him.”
Festifall took place over two days — North Campus on Tuesday and Central Campus on Wednesday. In an interview with The Daily, LSA senior Ellie Diaz, who tabled for Alpha Epsilon Delta at the University of Michigan, a pre-med professional fraternity, said she feels that Festifall is an important resource for students looking to join new clubs and organizations.
“f you don’t really know what’s out there, how are you gonna know what to join?” Diaz said. “If you aren’t seeing and meeting people, it can be hard to make that first step to go to a club, especially if you’ve never interacted with anyone at the club.”
Diaz also described the effort it takes for clubs to prepare for Festifall.
“We post a lot on Instagram leading up to it,” Diaz said. “Then, we made a poster for our organization with photos of us. It’s a group effort, and a lot of us put a little bit of our time into it, and it comes into this wonderful thing where we get to meet a lot of new people.”
Best Buddies, a club that pairs U-M students to peers with intellectual and developmental disabilities, was also at Festifall. LSA sophomore Margaret Weinberg, a member of Best Buddies who was at the club’s Festifall table, told The Daily that Festifall is valuable for students to get involved in not only the U-M campus, but in the greater community.
“I would say you’re never going to regret trying to be involved in something,” Weinberg said. “Especially something that’s, like, bettering your community or pouring back into your community.”
Daily Staff Reporter Olivia Aversano can be reached at oavers@umich.edu.
