The Santa Ana winds could not stop Riopalooza, Wednesday, April 10, from blowing in a wonderful show. The concert lasted between 11 a.m. and two p.m., taking place in the lower quad near the LRC building – the festival area filled with activity booths and places to grab snacks with a food truck on standby.

“I wanted Riopalooza this year to have bubbles, be you know have that spring feeling you know? Kind of to match with the 70s hippy theme I was going for.” Stated by Jason Reyes Firetech major and Center Chairman for campus engagement for ASRHC. Balloons and stations pumping out bubbles filled the lower quad like a scene out of feel like a colorized modern version Woodstock.

Reyes stated that he was overall really happy about the aesthetics and the turn out for Riopalooza.

“I saw all kinds of people looking on, or walking by at first but then stop and walk over to one of the booths and view the performances,” Reyes said when about his thoughts on the turn out of the event.

An Event for All Students to Enjoy

Spectator Janet Valdez stated that she really loved the live performances and the food truck they brought. “This event is really colorful and I like the Tie Dye booth,” Valdez said when asked about what she thought of the theme of Riopalooza this year.

“This was so fun, so colorful and such a great day to be out here like this!” Cassandra Torres, a music major that sang “Somebody to Love” by Queen during the event. She stated that because of her 11-year background in singing, she loves to challenge herself and chose that song to do that.

There was even a lip-synching competition that the Band from the ACT (Artists Creating Theater) club placed first in with their performance of Don’t Stop Believing by Journey.  Student Jonah Collazo, Member of the club and theatre major, that performed during the competition said that they choose this song because everyone “knows” Journey and thus easy to just get into it.

Collazo and her bandmates plan to participate next year and really enjoyed Riopalooza with it having a bigger crowd than last time.

El Paisano originally published this article in print form on April 17th.