By Kitzia Vazquez, Staff Reporter
March, 2022
“We should go to the fair over spring break!”
“What day should we go?”
“What time should we go?”
You hear the talk in school before leaving for spring break: people making plans to go to the Austin Rodeo. The rodeo had not been open since COVID-19 started, so many people were excited when they saw that this year it was happening. This year’s rodeo featured performances by many artists, including Aaron Watson, La Energia Nortena, and Walk the Moon. Prices for both the rodeo and concerts ranged from $25 to $175 depending on the seats you got. Beyond concerts, there was a lot to do and watch this year: the carnival, the stock show, agricultural education booths. There were even some vendors where you could get a new pair of boots, shirts, and other articles of clothing.
My friends and I went to the carnival on the weekend. It was so crowded that we realized that we chose a bad day to go. When we got there, we had to wait in a long line to get the tickets to get our wristbands, and the lines to some of the rides were way too long. You had people skipping the line to get on the ride first which is unfair to everyone who was already in line.
I asked my friends what rides they liked the most. “My favorite part about the whole thing was the haunted house ride and the kite ride,” KAC 11th-grader Giselle Guzman said. Fellow junior Sebastian Macedo said, “I liked the spaceship ride but I hated how my phone fell through the cracks of the seat. I was scared because I didn’t know where my phone was until a guy told me it could be behind the seat.” My favorite ride was the bumper cars because I got to crash into little kids, but I also liked the Ferris wheel.
But I also asked them what was their least favorite thing about the event and Guzman said “Just how hot it was,” and Macedo on the other hand said “How people were skipping the lines to get onto the rides.” But my least favorite thing was this ride I got on that would just keep spinning you around. I was scared when I was on it but I realized that it was too late to get off.
With food at the carnival, it just hits differently. It’s like you enjoy it too much. They had a variety of different foods this year. I saw some new food trailers that sold tacos, corn dogs, and many more good foods. Since the lines for the food were also way too long, we didn’t get the chance to get much stuff but the ones we did got were the churros for $5, lemonade for $10, and slushy for $5.
Overall, we all thought that the unlimited wristbands were overpriced at $40 because there weren’t as many new and fun rides and because we had to wait some time to get on rides. But at the end of the day, it was a fun experience with friends. It was our first time going together and was planned at the last minute. Next year, we are prepared to learn from our mistakes, so we expect the rodeo to go a little bit better.
The Cardinal Post 