Thousands of students packed into Parking Lot 3 on Friday night for Associated Students Inc.’s annual Smorgasport, staying out late to play games, eat free food and check out campus organizations.
Rows of student organization booths lined the festival’s perimeter, with club members promoting their organizations.
Daniel Castle, a senior civil engineering major, worked the Beach Crew, the Cal State Long Beach rowing team, booth that night.
“Smorgasport is our biggest single-day recruiting event,” Castle said.
The line for the event began forming around 6:45 p.m., more than an hour before it began.
Once inside, there was plenty for students to do.
Most booths provided activities for attendees, such as slap shots at the hockey booth, throwing a Frisbee with the Ultimate Frisbee team and salsa dancing lessons from the Salsa Club.
CSULB Triathlon team member Derick Smith, a senior marketing major, said nearly 40 people signed up for the club last year, and he expected to match that number this year.
Kyle Pham, a junior film major, came to represent Phi Kappa Tau, one of many fraternities on campus.
“I’m here to introduce people to Greek life,” Pham said. “It’s a great way to network and meet people.”
Students could even partake in riding on a mechanical bull, which launched riders into the air, or join the no-pain paintball area encompassed by a camouflage-green tent.
“It’s like paintball, but the balls are made of foam, so it doesn’t hurt,” Sue Sandoval, a junior pre-nursing major, who had just finished a game said.
And in a night full of fun and games, textbook rental company Chegg came out to support a cause – giving students the opportunity to register to vote in hopes of making them more active in politics.
“We wanted to learn why college students vote,” said Chegg Social Media Manager Leviticus Williams. “We always hear why they don’t vote, but we don’t hear why they do vote enough.”