AFAS VARIETY NIGHT: FLOP OR A MASTERPIECE?

Oluwapelumi King

Variety nights are one of the special events, if not the main event of any faculty organised week. It is an event where there are supposed to be lots of entertaining activities. The Variety night also includes pageantry as the main event of the night.

AFAS held her variety night on Friday, 11 March 2022, despite the warning strike action by ASUU and the indefinite strike action by the Non-academic staff union of the University of Ibadan. Nevertheless, the venue was filled to the brim, people could even be seen standing as there were not enough seats to accommodate them. It remains to be seen whether the majority of the attendees were Afasites.

AFAS variety night is normally the most attended social event on campus in normal circumstances. It is also usually one of the most entertaining social events on Campus. Last year, the fresher’s variety night was one of the most entertaining, if not the most entertaining event on campus. It was also the first major social event to hold on campus after the University declared physical resumption. Now, the purpose of this piece is to seek if this year’s fresher’s variety night lived up to the standard? Was it a flop or a masterpiece?

One cannot deny that the event started well despite the uncoordinated choreography of the contestants at the beginning. It remains to be seen whether that was a choreography at all as choreography involves coordination and the contestants were surely not coordinated in their dance steps. The hosts, Mc Tunchie and Yemi had good chemistry on the stage. It was a wonderful hosting performance. They were one of the interesting things to happen at the variety night. They managed to carry the crowd along which is perhaps one of the most difficult things to do as a host. They managed to keep the show lively.

The most striking thing about the variety night was the unusually long time between the contestant’s performances. There was an unusually large number of performances in between the contestants performances. It was not evenly distributed at all. With the unusual amount of large upcoming artistes, one would have been forgiven if they forgot about the main event of the night which was the AFAS Mr and Miss fresher event. What made it worse was the uninteresting and uninspiring performances of most of the upcoming artistes and performances. This is not in any way to demean the artistes; this is just to show that they still have a long way to go and improve if they want to succeed as artistes. Most times, it was the hosts’ vibes that covered up for the dull moments from the artistes’ performances. A certain 100level student complained about the performances being too much that it tired her.

Looking from the freshers’ point of view, it was one of the most interesting events they have attended in this school. One even described it as really interesting and enjoyable and commended the male host for his performances saying his vibe made the event more interesting. While this point cannot be discarded, it was certainly not up to par with the last freshers’ variety night. Perhaps, if some had attended the previous variety night, they would have seen the big difference between the two.

This variety night left a lot to be desired and shows a need for tremendous improvements. These improvements have to be seen in the next variety night or any social event conducted by the association to keep the faculty at the summit of the entertainment sector in the university. The scheduling in between the events, the performances, even to some extent, the contestant performances were not it.

All in All, while the variety night was not bad enough to be called a flop, it certainly was not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. It was pretty much a normal event when it could and should have been something more.