Unlike the rainy weather that fell at last year’s Streetfest, nothing but sunshine greeted the attendants last Saturday.

Students, parents and friends of the community gathered in E-Lot outside the Ryder center to celebrate Streetfest.

Program Board was responsible for putting on the event.

“It’s packed,” said John Reno, electrical engineering senior. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a turnout like this size before.”

Reno is a member of Program Board who, along with graphic design senior, Andrew Boyle, helped organize the games, rides and festivities this year.

Vanguard photo | Sean Dudley

Students enjoy rides such as the ferris wheel and bumper cars at Streetfest Saturday. Streetfest was free to all students, and included games and raffles inside as well as rides outside.

“I’m really happy that we have such clear skies and such nice weather for Streetfest this year,” Reno said. “Last year, we had to have almost all of the events inside because of the rainy weather.”

There were different games and carnival rides than last year, such as the zipper, the scrambler, bumper cars, a ferris wheel and tilt-a-whirl.

Program Board member and criminal justice sophomore, Chantel Beyette said that the tilt-a-whirl seemed like it was the most popular ride throughout the course of the day.

“I think a lot of people are really surprised that Streetfest is free for students,” Beyette said.

Beyette said this is her second year helping with Streetfest and this is the second time that students were allowed in for free.

Staff and faculty also had free admission and SVSU students were allowed to bring two guests for free. There was a $2 entrance fee for all others guests.

Attendants were eligible to win prizes, including $50 gift cards for restaurants and bookstores like Barnes & Noble.

In addition to cardinal rides, food and drinks were also provided for $2.

Many attendants carried elephant ears, corn dogs, popcorn, cotton candy and lemonade.

On the lawn of the Ryder Center, a giant tent was set-up and a number of lines zigzagged out from it for people waiting their turn to get things like balloon animals, face paintings, Henna tattoos, wax hands, and caricature cartoon drawings.

Psychology freshman Lisa Bertossi came to the festival with her mother and her aunt.

“This is a lot of fun,” Bertossi said. “We’ve only been here for an hour so far, but we’re having a great time. We’re looking forward to getting ourselves drawn by the caricature artists.”

Throughout the afternoon carnival tunes and contemporary music, played by Cardinal Radio, played across the lot.

Communication freshman Steven Ingham said the music  Cardinal Radio chose to play was based on both popular music and traditional carnival melodies.

“We wanted to play songs that most of the student body seems to have liked in the past,” Ingham said.

Marketing freshman Landon Defever is another member of Cardinal Radio.

“It’s been really nice and relaxing here at Streetfest so far,” Defever said. “I think it’s great to see everyone out and having a good time before we all have to start stressing over finals.”

Reno said Program Board has been working on planning and organizing Streetfest for the past two months.

“I’m happy that the event has been so successful so far,” Reno said. “We want to see as many people here as there were last year.”

Reno went on to estimate that by the end of the day, the attendance numbers for this year’s Streetfest would go beyond the 1,200 guests it brought in last year.

“I’m happy that everyone could come out and have fun today,” Reno said. “Streetfest is a great tradition here at SVSU that we definitely want to keep going.”

“We want to make it even bigger and better next year,” Beyette said.