Agora Zaragoza social program with focus on culture

On the 21st of October an e-mail was sent by the Incoming Responsible of Agora Zaragaoza to the participants. The mail contained information about the Social Program and all parties’ themes. Today The AEGEEan brings you an interview with the Agora team’s PR responsible, Silvia Sierra (AEGEE-Zaragoza) about these parties. 

How has it been working on the social program for the Agora? What difficulties have you overcome? 

Actually, it has been very hard. It’s not easy to find a place where one can organise a party for around 800 people and, above all, to find a place that also isn’t very far from the Congress Palace where participants will spend the night and where the rest of the Agora will take place. But in the end, the amazing team of the Social Program has succeeded.

It is well-known that there are people in AEGEE-Zaragoza who are not so interested in theme parties, why is that the case?

It’s because when we travel, we are used to take ‘Ryanair-suitcases’ (e.g. very small suitcases), and it’s very difficult to find space in your suitcase for normal clothes, shoes etc., so if we don’t have to take special clothes for parties it’s easier to prepare the luggage.

Has this affected the decisions regarding the social program? 

Yes and no. We have chosen some parties which cannot be omitted because of the dates of the Agora, or just because it is an Agora, but with the rest of parties we have tried to find some themes of which the costumes are very easy to find and to put into a small suitcase.

Which themes will there be for the parties?

Suit up Party (of course), Halloween (be ready to be scared…), Cultural European Night (with all countries’ tradition, but without typical alcohol or food from the rest of places) and White T-shirt Party.

Why have you chosen these particular themes?

As I have said previously, we have chosen these themes because some are “compulsory” in an Agora (Suit up) and some in the Autumn Agora (Halloween) and the rest of themes have costumes which are very easy to find and don’t take up a lot of place in the suitcase.

Where will the parties take place? Any special places?

Almost all the parties will take place in places very near from the Congress Palace, so participants won’t have to walk a lot to get there (some days about ten minutes, other days, just one minute), except one day, where the participants have go to the party in buses.

Organizing European Night must be difficult, have you found a place for it?

We’re not going to have traditional style European Night because, indeed, it’s very difficult to find a very big place where we would be allowed to drink our own drinks and and eat our own food. So we are going to celebrate a Cultural European Night, in which people can just show us their traditional costumes and dances. We have chosen the idea for the party and the place but it is the Culture Working Group that selects the performers.

Written by Patricia Anthony, AEGEE-København