It is the final stretch of the semester and finals are quickly creeping upon students at the University of Kentucky, which means they are in need of a break from studying. What better kind of break than enjoying some fun games, good food, and live music? Luckily, the Student Activities Board had just the thing in mind.

SAB wanted to celebrate the closing of another successful semester with a bang and their annual carnival fit just this occasion. 

On Sunday, the Orange Lot near Kroger Field was transformed into an exciting and eventful fairground open to all students at the university and locals around the community. To make it even more enjoyable, all rides and food were free.

Director of Campus Life and pre-physical training major Alethia Placencia explained the significance of having the carnival so close to finals.

“It’s supposed to be like the end of the year celebration, celebrating what we’ve done this year,” Placencia said. “We think it’s a good stress reliever right before students go into the hardest part of the year.”

Expectations of the 2019 carnival were exceeded when the total attendance for this year was over double the amount than it was last year within just the first hour.

“There’s three times the attendance this year, and as far of our concern is from last year’s expectations, we now are concerned with how to make it better for this amount of people and for students too because a lot of our community members came,” Placencia said.

Many families from the Lexington community were seen with smiles and happy faces while strolling through the carnival. One Lexington local, Nate Blankenship, was at the carnival with his wife and children enjoying the beautiful day out and fun environment.

“More events like this would be nice with it being so family friendly,” Blankenship said about his future expectations of the carnival.

Several rides including the sizzler and cliff hanger were seen at the carnival with many people in line. Food and drinks like freshly squeezed lemonade and cotton candy were also made available there so everyone could get the sense of feeling as if they were at a real carnival.

Placencia said that she and Nickie Cashdollar are both directors of campus life and usually hold separate events but came together for the carnival.

“Nickie did a lot more than I did for this particular event I did all the food, but she handled all the rides. All of our advisers helped out a lot as well, but overall a lot of people went into planning this event,” Placencia said.

It seemed like a perfect Sunday afternoon for both students and locals in Lexington to take a break from studying or just have a nice day out of the house.