Fall Fest 2015

October marked the beginning one of the first of the school’s big events, Fall Fest. Despite the rainy weather outside and the low temperatures, clubs and vendors lined “the street” while students, parents, teachers and members of the community of Oakville wandered around eating corn and sweets, listening to performers, and catching up with friends. The atmosphere was cheerful and people were having a very good time. 


Alejandro Ghalil, a grade 12 student there to take photos for the Yearbook, mentioned that his favourite thing about the Fest were the cupcakes. But he wasn’t the only one, Ms. Balenger (a music teacher at our school) said that one of the reasons she was excited for Fall Fest in the first place were the cupcakes! The owner of “Copcakes” explained that this was a business she’d started with her daughter (who wanted to be a pastry chef) six years ago. And although it was her first time at Fall Fest, she seemed to think that it was shaping up pretty well. One of the things she thought was coolest about Fall Fest was that we were raising money for the Pink campaign. “[It’s] a cause I can really relate to because I have a friend who has breast cancer,” she said.

But cupcakes weren’t the only snacks sold at the Fall Fest. Frozen yogurt from Yogurty's, cookies from the Interact club, fundraisers from the OSLC and corn from Mr. Corn (a regular vendor) were all present at Fall Fest. The girls manning the froyo booth, students from the nearby Oakville Trafalgar High School, seemed really interested in this school event.  They didn’t have anything like that at their own school, so they were excited to attend this event with Yogurty’s. Although for many vendors, this was their first time at Fall Fest, we did get some regulars. Jason Novade, from Mr. Corn, says that this is his third or fourth time at Fall Fest. He really enjoys going to this event because it’s the only event they attend in high schools regularly. His favorite part of Fall Fest: seeing people enjoy his corn!

As well as the vendors, another vital feature of Fall Fest was the performances which took place in the school cafeteria. Not only did they do an excellent job of showcasing the talent that IRHS has to offer, but they also were amazing at bringing the community together. Sanjay Manjania, a Grade 12 student (who performed as a beatboxer) was watching for many of the performances. Apparently this is not his first time performing at a school event. He was inspired to try beatboxing when he saw a video on Youtube and was very impressed by it. Since then, he’s gifts performing for the elderly in retirement homes. But beatboxing is not his only talent- he also plays the piano, various percussion instruments, and he sings.

The other side of the spectrum of performers, the ones just starting out at the school, included three ninth grade singers, named Abby, Bella, and Claire. All sang individually. “It’s a different environment than a big theatre,” Bella said, explaining why she was tempted to sing at Fall Fest.

Another ninth grade act was a band called “Bad Apple”, who performed four songs at the event. The boys Ricardo, Sawyer, Daniel and Ben (the first three being ninth grade students at IRHS) performed 4 songs at the event. Before they performed, we asked them what they were most looking forward to for their first performance at Iroquois. While Sawyer announced he was looking forward to “melting peoples’ faces”, Ricardo thought it was more important to make a good impression at their new school. They have played together at other events prior to our festival, such as Ribfest, the Moonshine Cafe and even winning a talent competition.

Apart from the vendors and the performers, there were also copious of student and teacher volunteers at the event, such as the Student Voice club, which had a booth in the Street. They, like many of our other clubs, work on giving students the opportunity to make a difference in their community. They encourage this by trying to recognize student leaders and organizing student events like Coffeehouse, as well as doing charity work. This year Student Voice is especially trying to support UNICEF KIND.

Fall Fest was organized by Student Council, which had high hopes for the event this year. They like it to be a “year-opening event” to bring the school and the community together. Angelica Rivas, a member of StudCo, said her favorite part of the evening in previous years has been the scary movie shown at the end of the night, because she likes seeing students together, having a good time and enjoying a movie. This year seems to be no exception- the students gathered to watch “Poltergeist” were screaming, laughing, and discussing (mostly) the movie enthusiastically.

All in all, Fall Fest was a huge success for both students and the school community, and a great way to kick off the school year.