County Fair: a break from the start of the school year and a time honored Parker tradition. With past themes like Under the Sea, Retro, and Candyland, how will Parker sophomores pull off the new and different Parkerpalooza? Parkeralooza will be a Lollapalooza inspired County Fair for students in kindergarten through senior year. There will be a new addition this year, which is an all inclusive wristband. rRather than tickets, this will be a way to access games and snacks. The sophomore class decorated them to resemble the wristbands given at Lollapalooza. Many are excited for this theme, including one of the heads of the County Fair MX, Josie Laufer. “I think the theme is unique and isn’t something we’ve done before,” Laufer said.
However, not everyone is as thrilled with the theme. Sophomore Alaina Prokup, head of booth logistics, said, “I think we should have done a more fall-based theme, because County Fair is in October, rather than a theme that’s just a trending event.” Fellow sophomore Sophia Piotrowski agreed. “County Fair is mainly catered toward younger kids, and I don’t think Parkerpalooza is appropriate or relevant for younger grades. More fun and childish themes would have worked better,” Piotrowski said.
Ms. Hasbun’s third grade class disagreed. While not all of them knew what Parkerpaloooza meant, they were all excited for the music themed County Fair. “I think Parkerpalooza is going to be really fun since my cousin went to Lollapalooza,” third grader Sera Bayer said. Several others echoed the statement saying they knew of Lollapalooza from siblings who had gone. Even those who don’t know much about Lollapalooza are excited for the music aspect of the fair. “I really like music, my sister has been to Lollapalooza, and she saw singers, so I wonder if singers will come to our school,” third grader Zayba Dutt said. Emma Selinger is also excited to hear singing at the fair. “I’m excited for County Fair since it’s a music theme, and the first grade sings a song and my sister is in first grade,” Selinger said. The name Parkerpalooza was also popular amongst the third graders. “Parkerpalooza seems really fun even though I don’t know that much about it. I like the name Parkerpalooza,”third grader Stella Harper said. The theme aside, third grade is definitely looking forward to the fair. “I’m excited for the theme, and making popcorn, and the games and basically everything,” Elly Kramer said.
Ms. McCullom’s third grade class is also excited for the fair, especially when it comes to getting to know more about the theme. “I’m wondering if all the grades will do the same thing as last year or change it,” third grader Maya Albuquerque said. Fellow third grader, Nikko Tsambarlis agreed.“I’m excited about the MX where we get a sneak peak of what we are going to experience at Parkerpalooza,” Tsambarlis said. Aside from the new theme, third graders are also very excited about running a long time County Fair staple, the popcorn booth. “I’m excited because I’ve never gotten to have a big responsibility at County Fair. It’ll be exciting and fun to give out popcorn,” third grader Hanna Greib said. One of her classmates, Tariq Howe, feels similarly. “I have heard lots of people say you should get popcorn, I’ve seen lots of people holding popcorn. I hope we can get a lot of tickets, and popping popcorn sounds fun,” Howe said.
Sophomores are working to create a magical day for the lower schoolers and have also been partnering with their gradeheads Brianna Ift and Xiao Zhang. These two faculty members have been working together to put on County Fair for four years. They explained that the process behind County Fair starts well before the sophomore year. “Last year we asked the freshman to generate some ideas for the County Fair theme, we voted on that….we also asked volunteers to work on the design of the County Fair shirt,” Zhang said. Aside from that, student County Fair heads were also elected their freshman year and the theme announcement was made on Class Day. During the school year, as much free time as possible is utilized to prepare for the fair. Every graderoom leading up to County Fair the sophomores have been hard at work. “During graderoom, they’re able to get a group of peers to work on things. Whether that be the 10th grade skit, making decorations, or working on wristbands,” said Ifft said. As for what the sophomores are doing in terms of decor and theme, Ifft said that “the idea is kind of like Lollapalooza, Parker style. So we expect to see lots of music decor and colors. I mean it’s really up to the students and how they want to interpret it and how they want to run with it.” Zhang emphasised the students’ key role in the fair., “We actually just support the students in terms of how to organize and develop a theme… It’s the committee heads in particular who lead the implementation of their vision and the various ideas that are generated by the grade,” Zhang said. “We’re kind of like the project managers making sure things don’t fall through the cracks.” The sophomores are putting lots of work into making this County Fair memorable for all grades.