UAB celebrates Festa Major 2018
07/11/2018
At last, after a whole year, the UAB community’s most awaited party is here: the Festa Major de la UAB. The university was packed with students who could participate in all sorts of activities. All attendees were also able to enjoy musical performances and food and drink from the student stalls.
The festa, which in its last editions has turned into a space of awareness for its impact, revolved around the slogan #UABrefugi: l’Autònoma acull which aims to raise awareness on this global crisis that affects 65.6 million people, half of them children, according to ACNUR. Different activities were organized following the slogan’s topic, such as the Refugee Scape Room which is intended to explore some of the realities that migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees live during their migratory process.
This Festa Major, free of sexual discrimination and aggressions, encourages participation and is co-responsible with students and environmental management. For the first time, FMUAB had a Violet Stand, supervised by the Observatory for Equality, which was located in front of the Facultat de Traducció I Interpretació. In this point attendees could get information about the protocol on how to tackle and intercede in the event of a sexist aggression in university.
Besides the Violet Stand, this edition also had an Infosalut point supervised by Fundació Autònoma Solidària (FAS), which provided information about health, sexuality and responsible drinking; a water fountain (L’aigua hidrata la festa) with multiple bubblers located in front of Facultat d’Educació, and stands where attendees could change their glass bottles for plastic ones (El vidre talla la festa).
The activities at FMUAB18
Sara Moreno, vice-rector for Students and Employability, announced the start of the FM by introducing a speech led by two Lebanese refugee students that UAB sheltered with the Generalitat de Catalunya’s shelter programme to allow them to continue their studies here.
After delivering the prize to the FMUAB Poster Contest’s winner, the Plaça del Coneixement turned into a festive space with a zumba masterclass, a swing open class and a covers exhibition in charge of the student society Korean Club, among many other activities. Afterwards, the hereu and pubilla of UAB were proclaimed.
The traditional Fira d’Entitats took place in Plaça Cívica from 1 p.m to 5 p.m, in which attendees could visit stands with information on the university’s societies, services and projects and also participate in the FMUAB18 gymkhana. Those who took part in ten activities won a t-shirt with the slogan of this year’s party.
On the occasion of 50 years of UAB, Ganàpies, the university’s colla castellera gathered the thirteen university colles from the whole territory (a total of more than 700 people) in Eix Central with the macrodiada #FemlaMacro, which was a huge success. Both Ganàpies and Arreplegats de la ZU were able to build castells of 7 levels.
In Plaça del Coneixement, attendees enjoyed different music styles performances from the eleven groups that won the prize Premi Autònoma Actua of the contest organized by Cultura en Viu. Furthermore, this space was filled with 46 student and society stalls (whose members were previously trained on dispensing of beverages) offering everyone food, drinks and different games in most stalls.
The festa ended with an impressive “Batalla de Galls i Gallines” which took place in Plaça Cívica and was organized by a group of students from Facultat de Comunicació.
A party with the Q stamp
On Monday 5 November, the Festa Major de la UAB was given the badge Q de Festa! by the Agència de Salut Pública de Catalunya. This is the first time that a university party gets this stamp, since it usually is given to local parties and musical festivals. This quality label turns the Festa Major de la UAB in a model for university celebrations because of the values they spread such as health, wellbeing, environment, solidarity and gender equality, among many others.