On April 13, 2013 U of A’s Filipino American Student Association (FASA) club held their 17th annual FASA Fiesta at Tucson High Magnet School from 6 p.m. till 9 p.m. This is the first year it had the title “Salo Salo” in it but it holds a significant purpose. FASA Fiesta is a Filipino cultural show that consists of entertainment from mainly Arizona and California, traditional Filipino food and socializing with friends, family and others from the local Tucson community.
“In Tagalog, Salo Salo means a social gathering with food and that’s exactly what FASA Fiesta is.” Said Jeff Viray, Media Arts senior and minoring in Producing, Art History, who is FASA’s current Fiesta Chair. “Both our Executive board and Creative Team, which is a team created to help E-board since FASA Fiesta is such a hectic and crucial event, worked extremely hard and put a great deal of time into it. We couldn’t have done it without our awesome volunteers dedicating their time as well.”
The Creative Team, as well as E-board handed in letters to local restaurants and other businesses asking for donations of any sort to support the club and also receive more publicity. FASA Fiesta’s sponsors include Mimi’s Café, Break Out Dance Studio, Snow Pea Restaurant, Mama’s Hawaiian BBQ, REC Shop and more. They also held many fundraisers to raise extra money to support the event, cooked some of the food like pancit, adobo and lumpia with their volunteers and came to the event early in the morning to help set up and run through the show.
The majority of the performers were members of the FASA club and they performed cultural dances like Tinikling, Pandango, Itik Itik and others but their special guest performer, Monica Parales who was a dancer on Team Millennia Junior but moved up to Team Millennia and has starred in Nick Cannon’s all girl group, “School Gyrls”. The event ended with her performances, a hip-hop dance and sang two songs. More than 100 people supported this event and over 50 people starred in the show.
“It (FASA Fiesta) had a good turn out and everyone had a lot of fun! Many came to support our club and the event which I’m so grateful for. A lot of families came out and enjoyed all the performances,” said Rachel Tinimbang, Education senior, who is FASA’s President,” especially the cultural dances because not many Filipino people are in the Tucson community so I think seeing young students celebrating the culture pleased them.”
FASA Fiesta: Salo Salo was a huge success as the guests said the food was delicious and they enjoyed the entertainment, as well as the social hour that was given before the show started. Some attended FASA Fiesta every year as it is an annual event and for others this was their first time but said they’ll be attending the next one.