Spring Fling is canceled again.
The Associated Students of the University of Arizona announced online the cancellation of their annual carnival Wednesday morning. When the Daily Wildcat asked why the event was canceled, ASUA representatives declined to comment.
Via the Spring Fling website, the popup announcement read: “We are sad to announce Spring Fling 2022 has been cancelled. We are currently working on creating the best and safest Spring Fling 2023!!”
The announcement came after the Daily Wildcat reached out Wednesday to Ceileigh Trevers, executive director of the 2022 Spring Fling team, who confirmed the event was canceled. Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, the website and social media for the event was promoting an April 8-10 event.
Spring Fling is one of the largest student-run carnivals for students with a seasoned history on campus, running 47 years. The official ASUA Spring Fling website promotes “over 32,000 guests,” “over 20 different food booths” and “over 40 rides.” The event has not been seen on campus since spring of 2019 due to COVID-19.
The Daily Wildcat reached out to Arizona Model United Nations, a club on campus which participated in Spring Fling in prior years, including the year before the pandemic shuttered campus. Each year, AZMUN would run an original food booth, selling popcorn, soda floats and other items. This booth let the club fundraise in order to travel for the Model United Nations conference which takes place each fall.
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Morgan Wallace, secretary general of AZMUN, is one of the few members of her club who has been to a Spring Fling. As a senior graduating in May, she expressed concern for the club after she leaves.
“We’re definitely losing money for our returning members in the fall,” she said.
As secretary general, she had to support club members who hadn’t even been to a Spring Fling through the club booth application process.
“We have no one in our club who has been in Spring Fling. They have no idea what to expect and what that looks like,” Wallace said. “We didn’t know it was canceled until we emailed after not hearing any communication. … [ASUA] said it was canceled and we went, ‘Well, that’s it.’”
Athena Bongoyan, a sophomore and the USG of economics for AZMUN, has never attended a Spring Fling, but when members of the club told her about the event, she said she began looking forward to it. As the liaison for AZMUN and the club, she was the first person to hear of its cancellation, received by email Jan. 26.
Recounting the application process and the lack of communication, “the application process was long, and it talked about how much commitment it would take from members of the Model United Nations,” Bongoyan said. “We signed up in November, and it was a long application explaining how we’d fit with working with Spring Fling. As the semester began, we thought we’d hear back. [I told] our club members we hadn’t heard from them. Based on the amount of commitment they asked of us, we thought we’d hear back.”
As a senior, Wallace said she was disappointed in the cancellation beyond the effect it has on her club.
“Overall, I’m really disappointed that [ASUA] isn’t hosting Spring Fling,” Wallace said. “It’s a really good opportunity to engage students on campus when they haven’t been [due to COVID-19].”
Despite never attending Spring Fling, Bongoyan expressed similar disappointment.
“If I’m being honest, I had never heard of Spring Fling before. [AZMUN] told me about it, and I thought it was interesting and incredibly fun. The school doesn’t offer a lot of social events everyone can be involved with,” Bongoyan said. “I started looking forward to it. I was disappointed to hear it was canceled and for it to be canceled in an anticlimactic way. It really took us by surprise.”
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