Was College Fun Day a success?

By Charisse Chan and Savannah Lo

College Fun Day was held on December 3rd, 2022, with many exciting stalls such as bracelet making and face painting which was really a thrilling experience for the younger children in the primary years.

Despite Covid restrictions that once again kept the event downsized, many people would agree that this year’s College Fun Day was a success. Chloe, an RCHK student, commented, “The fair was enjoyable as I got to see my friends too, [and] there were many stalls and games and the performances were also exciting.” Puppies were a favourite: students thought that the puppies were “adorable, cuddly and [...] adored by lots of people.” Another interesting stall was the tarot reading stall, where you could discover your fortune. The 100 HKD ticket price also received praise: one student said that “The ticket prices were fine — they weren’t cheap but weren’t too unreasonable either.” Students also agreed that the performances at the fair were very entertaining, and “they could see the hard work people put into their performances”.

But it wasn’t just the guests who left the event satisfied — volunteers also had a great experience. Liana, a student volunteer, said: “This year’s College Fun Day [...] gave me more of an idea of how much work, effort and thought is put into preparing the fair.” She also described this event as “an amazing experience for all ages.” She also mentioned that students liked the clothing stall as the “type of clothing they sold really attracted secondary students.” Liana also “enjoyed looking at the different stalls and the backstory behind them” and referred to the event overall as “very fun” and a “unique experience”. Another student volunteer, Ryan, enthused: “It was absolutely amazing to see our strenuous efforts bear fruit.”

Manning the stalls. (Photograph taken by Heer Jadhwani)

Amidst the countless fun stalls and activities, however, some viewed the event in a less positive light. “In previous years, College Fun Day had more people. With Covid restrictions and separated time slots, the fair lacked its usual fun and joyous mood,” an RCHK parent said. But it wasn’t just restrictions — because most of the attendees were RCHK students familiar with the fair’s ins and outs, they weren’t as interested in the fair.

Tickets were also mainly promoted to primary students, meaning that many secondary students did not get tickets in time. And external attendees — especially students from other schools — had difficulty with buying tickets as they could only be purchased through an ESF account. Even those with an account were often confused by the unfamiliar technology — they didn’t know how to operate the ESF app.

A solution for this could be having more days of College Fun day or more sessions instead of just two, perhaps one day mainly for students and another day for external guests to enjoy the fair.

Notably, there was no publicly available list of performances — no one really know who was performing, when. So when some students came to College Fair looking forward to certain performances, they ended up having to wait several hours for them. In one case, this caused a student to completely miss out on a performance — their ticket for the wrong time slot — hours wasted waiting just because of this one issue.

“I was really looking forward to watching the Keyboard Ensemble's performance. But I didn’t know it would be in the afternoon session, and I only bought the morning ticket,” they said. “I spent too much money on stalls, so I couldn’t buy an afternoon ticket either. The other performances were good, so I won’t complain, but I’m not too happy missing out on what would’ve been the highlight of College Fair. I wish the schedule was given to us earlier, so I could’ve bought the Session 2 tickets.”

Evidently, a popular suggestion was to publicly release the schedule and advertise it on posters — who was performing, what they were doing, and most importantly when. Perhaps this could’ve been posted before tickets were for sale so that people could buy tickets for the time slot in which the performance was held. Many of the performances were also only for students from RCHK, which meant that students from other schools without performing opportunities would be unable to showcase their talents.

Another suggestion was to display a map at the entrance so parents and students could see all the different stalls and activities rather than having to walk around the whole campus. This would be especially useful if College Fair returns to its former size: outsiders would be able to easily navigate the school.

Despite some negative comments, most can agree College Fun Day was a success. The stalls, activities and performances were entertaining — volunteers, organisers and performers alike put incredible effort into making this year’s school fair a success.

One more thing regarding the volunteers was that they were not able to get free tickets, which meant that they could not buy food from the cafeteria during their breaks throughout their 3-5 hour shifts. An art scholar volunteering at the body painting stall stated that: “I would say that it was a bit vexing as some resources were not readily available, but we were not told we needed to bring anything.” They expressed that some people had better or more resources which also meant that the people getting a body painting wouldn’t receive the same quality as others.

Although this year’s college fair was extremely fun and enjoyable for many families and students, many also agreed that the energy and mood of the college fair before the pandemic was incomparable to the past two college fairs. Despite the negative comments about College Fun day, we have to say that even with all the Covid limitations, a vast amount of people were very satisfied that College Fun Day was still able to be held. The stalls, activities and performances were entertaining which shows how amazing the teachers and students are for organizing such a fun event. In the future, we can hope for a return to the much larger College Fair — as COVID restrictions loosen, some have already started planning more ambitiously for next year’s event. Whether 2023 brings us College Fun Day or College Fair, let’s hope the positive atmosphere, brilliant attractions and masterful performances continue!