On Friday, August 16, Irvington’s Associated Student Government (ASG) welcomed students back to campus through Vikenight. Vikenight, an annual Irvington tradition, took place after school in the Pavilion, full with games, activities, and food for those who attended. As the first major event of the school year, Vikenight was a success—introducing freshmen to Irvington’s hardcore school spirit and community.
Preparation for Vikenight began in late June. ASG handled communication with Kona Ice, planned setup, organized activities, put up decorations, and most importantly, made sure that the cotton candy machine was working in the months leading up to the event. A key focus of Vikenight this year was making sure it was different from how it was running in the past. ASG’s Student in Action director, Soundharya Vairavan (12), explained, “Vikenight this year had more activities catered to students at Irvington who have different interests, examples being the new karaoke station and video games, which were both stationed inside the cafeteria.”
Vikenight had activities for all students, including the Kona Ice truck, bean bag toss games, Jenga, and ping pong hosted in the Pavilion. Just outside the cafeteria, students could make friendship bracelets or play giant Uno with their friends. The cafeteria hosted a karaoke station, pool, a free cotton candy booth, board games on tables, and Mario Kart in the corner of the room.
As the first school event of the year, Vikenight had lots of expectations to meet. Teju Tubati (9), Freshman Class Officer, wanted to see Vikenight serve as a “sense of motivation for freshmen—hyping them up and convincing them to come to more Irvington events in the future.” She added that her class “needed something like Vikenight to kick off the year,” and that she can’t wait for spirit week: Vikenight hopefully foreshadowing the fun to come for their next four years at Irvington.
With no surprise, the Class of 2028 had a great time at Vikenight, and ASG’s efforts paid off. “I came to Vikenight to have a good time with my friends, and it was. I loved the friendship bracelet and face painting station, and I got Kona Ice with my friends,” said Kushi Arun (9).
Looking around at students at Vikenight, Vairavan (12) added that “making sure students have a good time at our events is always important, but especially for events like Vikenight that take place at the beginning of the year. We want students to feel good at Irvington and know they have a community at school. Seeing people’s smiles at Vikenight, hearing laughs in the mic at the karaoke booth—there’s no better feeling than that.”
Vikenight excited freshmen for what’s to come during the school year and for the rest of their time at Irvington. “I’ll be going to football games and other school events after Vikenight. This makes me excited for the next four years and future events,” added Prabhaavi Jagannati (9).
Vikenight served as the perfect back-to-school celebration, hyping students up about their freshman year and setting high expectations for future ASG events.
