Gallons of neon paint were sprayed on dancing students at the UCA Student Activities Board’s GLOWRAGE Paint Party, which attracted 140 attendees to the Irby brick pit at 9 p.m. Sept. 9.
On the stage, while the DJ played electronic dance music, Student Activities Board members senior Ceci Cordova and juniors Natalie Gooden and Brittani Lee used buckets to refill water guns with more neon paint to spray on the partygoers.
To promote the event, SAB gave out free GLOWRAGE tank tops on the afternoon of Sept. 8 in front of the Ronnie Williams Student Center.
Glow necklaces and bracelets were also free to students at the party.
Freshman Sera Yang said parties like this make UCA more exciting than her hometown, Harrison, Arkansas.
Yang said she liked the party’s theme and setting.
“I really like colorful parties, so this is like my jam right here,” Yang, a computer science major, said. “If it’s like an on-campus kind of party, I’m more comfortable with that than like, with a fraternity.”
SAB’s graduate assistant Hazel Bonilla, who studies in UCA’s College Student Personnel Administration program, said that is precisely what SAB tries to offer with its events.
“We provide fun and safe events for students to come to, so I mean, we’re happy to hear that she said that,” Bonilla said.
The party was thrown in conjunction with a third-party company contracted by SAB, Degy Entertainment, which offers a service called Paint University that sets up and cleans up paint parties on college campuses.
According to Degy promotional material, PaintU is the “largest collegiate paint party” and uses “certified hypoallergenic, nontoxic, water-based washable paint.”
All entrances and exits to the brick pit were blocked by picnic tables except for the wheelchair ramp. Participants had to sign in with SAB members at the front using the Corq app and sign an assumption risk waiver to get a wristband to enter the party area. A uniformed UCAPD officer monitored the event.
Last year’s foam drop party was similar in setup and venue to GLOWRAGE because Degy works with SAB on both.
“We try to go back and forth with those each year, so we’ve been working with [Degy] for a very long time. I’d say a couple of years,” Bonilla said.
SAB was still responsible for confirming the party’s location, date and staff, as well as assisting with the setup and cleanup.
“Afterward, we just make sure there’s no lost belongings. [PaintU] picks up all of their equipment, and we just make sure there’s no trash left over, and that’s really it.”
SAB’s next scheduled event is “Getting Spicy with Sean Evans and Caleb McLaughlin” at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 15, in Reynolds Performance Hall. Each student was eligible for two free tickets from the Reynolds Performance Hall box office before they sold out Sept. 12.
Sunday, Sept. 18, in Ida Waldran Auditorium, SAB is showing “Uncharted” at 3 p.m. and “Thor: Love and Thunder” at 7 p.m., and Tuesday, Sept. 20, singer-songwriter Alice Kristiansen is performing outside the Student Center during X-period.
