Sabado Gigante

Right before everyone was getting ready to leave for Thanksgiving break, the brothers of Sigma Lambda Beta, an international fraternity, hosted their annual Sabado Gigante event.  Sabado Gigante is originally a popular show in the Latino culture, shown every Saturday. In this show many people show off their talents, participate in different games, and most times, artists are interviewed and, towards the end of the show, perform. Just like the original Sabado Gigante, the fraternity’s event provided games, many performances done by Penn State students, and a performance done by famous singer, Toby Love. This event took place at the HUB, in Heritage Hall, on Saturday November 10^th, 2012 from 8pm to 12am.  I was very happy to go to this event, not only because it was the first multicultural event I had attended, but because the DSA dance team, which I, along with my dance partner, choreograph, were asked to perform.  Because this was our first performance of the semester, everyone was very excited to be a part of it.

The entire event was great! Although the event was opened to everyone, there were more Hispanics, more than I expected! I didn’t know so many attended Penn State. The event began with one of Open Mic’s very own club member, Maryam. She sang a song by Alicia Keys called “If I Ain’t Got You”. All I can say is WOW ! That girl can definitely sing!! She sang her heart out and did a perfect job doing so. Once she sang, everyone knew it was going to be a great show. After a couple of act, the event had reached intermission. During intermission a balloon game was played. 8 girls and 8 boys were randomly chosen from the crowd; the rule of this game was to choose a partner and pop two balloons, whoever popped the balloon the most creatively won the title of “Sabado Gigante’s Balloon Popper of the Year”. At first it sounded a bit silly, but once the music turned on and you watched the contestant desperately trying to pop the balloons, the game became tremendously funny! People were doing all sorts of things to pop the balloons; the best part would be when the balloon wouldn’t pop and move somewhere else, making the contestant chase after them.  After the game was over and a pair of people had taken the title, the show continued. The rest of the show consisted of other performances such as poets and different types of dances, like Hip Hop, Salsa, and Bachata; everyone did very well, including DSA dance team. We were the closing act, performing Bachata, which is a type of Hispanic dance, like the Salsa. Although many of the team members were nervous, and we felt as if we were pressured to end the show with a bang, once our song began, we were all on point! No one messed up, everyone danced well, and best of all, we all had a lot of fun.  After our performance came Toby Love.  He performed many songs, danced around stage, and, like many other artists, gave a motivational speech.  

Overall the whole event was a lot of fun and very impressive, not only because I was able to meet Toby Love, but because of the actual performances. My favorite part of this event was seeing other students show off their talents.  You never know what people are capable of until you see it with your own eyes. There were a couple of people who I would see around campus who I did not expect to sing or dance the way they did. The DSA dance team was also given a lot of compliments; it was the first PSU performance of the semester, and we all felt great about it. This night was a very good night!