Catawbapalooza
by Casey Lane Hudgins '08

Catawba College students, including me, just finished enjoying Catawbapalooza, a week-long event that is sort of like a Homecoming weekend capped by a carnival on the very last day.

Every year, there's a different theme — one year it was a luau theme, this year it was a Mardi gras theme. T-shirts are made using the annual theme and everyone gets a t-shirt to keep and remember that year's Catawbapalooza.

Every night of Catawbapalooza, there is a different event like the womanless beauty pageant, the lip sync contest, the luau, a scavenger hunt and on Saturday, there's a big, week-capping, daylong event. There are games, prizes, and competitions. The prizes are always great prizes like an IPod Touch, an IPod Nano, TVs, or portable DVD players. You have to play the Wheel of Destiny to win a prize. You might have to eat a whole pineapple pie, or kiss a fish for five seconds, but in the end, it is worth it to win an IPod or a TV.

This year, there was a rock climbing wall, a gladiator jousting ring, and the fast-moving, gravity-defying amusement ride, the Scat. There were also different activities and games like an inflatable basketball game, an inflatable jumping castle, a bungee jumping swing and a live D.J. Students could sign up to compete in the Decathlon, playing in a volleyball tournament, a tug of war contest, and the car push.

There were funnel cakes, cotton candy, hamburgers, hot dogs, and frost bites, all for free!

Although I couldn't get to every event associated with Catawbapalooza, I attended the lip sync contest on Thursday night and it was a lot of fun. In past years, there may have been better performances, but this year's contest was definitely funny. People imitated the Spice Girls and Soldier Boy, two different groups lip synced to "It's Raining Men." This year, it wasn't as entertaining to me as it had been in past years and some of the songs folks selected and lip synced and performed to were a little too much if you ask me! Maybe I'm just jaded, after all this is my third and final Catawbapalooza year.

By attending my last Catawbapalooza ever, I have marked another thing off of my bucket list. You'll be pleased to know that my bucket list is almost complete!

PHOTOS: Catawbapalooza