Pinkberry’s two-day opening celebration was met by students, faculty and staff lining up and out the restaurant’s doors on Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday, a few hundred people were invited to try Pinkberry for free at a “Friends and Family and VIP event.” There were balloons, music and booths set up outside of the Student Union Memorial Center to prepare students for its opening.

Rachel Pergamit, a junior studying environmental and water resource economics, and Leslie Wilt, a Near Eastern studies senior, both work at Core and were invited to the VIP event.

“They catered training day and that was the first time I had ever tried it. But I definitely had to come to try it again. I wouldn’t turn down free ice cream,” Wilt said.

On Tuesday, Pinkberry officially opened to the public and students lined up to taste it. Ken Kastenhuber, senior dining services supervisor, predicted thousands of people would try the frozen yogurt by the end of the day.

Signs were put up in the union last semester announcing Pinkberry’s arrival at the UA. Jianne Johnson, retailing dining service manager, said that the yogurt shop took about a year to plan and build.

Johnson said the university was completely responsible for bringing Pinkberry to the UA. She declined to comment on how much money it cost to bring Pinkberry to the university, but said it was “a great investment.”

Five hundred students applied to work at Pinkberry. These students were invited to a three-day audition process where they were split up in groups of 10 to 12. The students had to introduce each other, participate in a marketing strategy exercise and create a 30-second commercial. Pinkberry hired 40 of these students.

“We have a bunch of excited team members that are ready to bring swirly goodness to the university,” Kastenhuber said.

This is the first Pinkberry to open in Arizona, but many students are already familiar with the yogurt shop.

“There are a lot of students that come from California, and Pinkberry is very popular there. We hope that by bringing Pinkberry to the university, we are able to bring a piece of home for West Coasters,” Johnson said.

Cameron Wiggins, a microbiology junior from Southern California, said he was excited to have Pinkberry at the UA.

“I’ve been to Pinkberry a bunch of times back home,” he said. “It is most definitely exciting. I’m assuming that it’ll blow up here like it did in Southern California.”