SMC Fans Shake Their Tailgate Feathers
Early Saturday morning, while the grass still glistened with dew and the sun barely touched the horizon, Associated Students began setting up for the Homecoming Game Tailgate Party. The pregame celebration, hosted annually by the Santa Monica College Alumni Association, would be the start of the day’s festivities which included games, music, and good food.
Alumni, faculty, and current students came out with their families to participate in the fun before cheering on their Corsairs football team when they took the field for a fierce battle against the College of the Canyons.
The Associated Students and various school clubs managed to turn part of the track around the football field into a Harvest Carnival with booths for balloon accessories and face painting. Suzanne Haring from The Soozi Show, a corporate and family entertainment solutions business, had everyone wearing balloon headpieces shaped into footballs.
Some of the Cheer Club members even wore balloon tails on the backs of their uniforms. The Cheerleaders also adorned SMC football fans with face painting flare. Corsair loyalists represented SMC with glittery blue and white faces painted into the SMC letters or other signs of team support.
The Cheer Club took advantage of the day’s platform to also show their LGTBQ support. Some wore rainbow hearts painted on their faces while others replaced their white pompoms with different colors of the rainbow. They flew a rainbow colored flag proudly as well.
Other club booths gave out tee shirts, bags, and accessories while some hosted carnival games such as Cornhole Boards. Urban Mediamakers West club members even filmed the entire morning’s events.
Member Sambie Mwafulirwa said he found the day’s atmosphere to be “electric and fierce, It was a fun day with prizes and giveaways too." The event had something for the whole family to participate in while waiting for Corsairs to take the field.
Along with the carnival games and face painting, fans had their choice of delicious foods to indulge in. Tortuga Bay served their famous sliders along with a Caprese salad option for vegetarians to enjoy.
The food carts carried all of the essential fair cuisines from pink and blue cotton candy to traditional churros. While enjoying carnival treats, tailgate goers listened to upbeat music from a DJ who had supporters of both teams dancing before the game.
While the Corsairs took the field against the Cougars football team, the carnival came quietly down. The tailgate proved to be great fun and amped-up fans to give the SMC team their full support.
Even though the Corsairs did not take home the win, the tailgate party still managed to give those that attended the game something to leave smiling about.