The
Students Association even booked a face painter and a balloon modeller in order
to create a friendly, accessible event. While talking to a new student who was
only in the second week of her hair and beauty course, she told me: “College is
much better than school, and things like this prove that. This is a fun event
with a great atmosphere. I can’t imagine anything like this happening back at
my high school.”
Businesses
such as Santander, CEX, and Wetherspoons had tables piled high with voucher
booklets, special offer coupons, and welcome packs to assist students in their
new low budget lifestyles, and even public transport company Stagecoach was providing
goody bags filled with bubble blowers and chocolate bars in its promotion of
the “Unirider”, a bus pass designed exclusively for students in need of
discounted travel. International bank Santander was offering youngsters a 16-25
railcard if they signed up to their student account, however, most people were
distracted by the interactive stalls beside them, ran by Safe Drive Stay Alive
and the NHS.One of the most popular attractions at the fair was without a doubt the NHS’s sexual health table, which featured a game in which two students had to sport “beer goggles” (a pair of glasses which gave the effect of the blurred vision experienced when drunk) while putting a condom on a plastic replica of a penis. Although this allowed for laughs between friends, it also gave an important message regarding the necessity of safe sex. The nurse running the stall told the crowds: “Young people under 25 account for over half of all newly diagnosed STDs. You are in the most at risk category for sexual health problems”. The other interactive stall ran by Safe Drive Stay Alive, an organisation promoting safe driving among young people, had a computer simulator allowing students to test out their driving skills under the influence of tiredness, drugs, and alcohol. Speaking to a group of boys who had tried out the game, they said: “This is a lot of fun but at the same time reminds us the seriousness of safe driving”.
Of course, with only a week to go until the upcoming independence referendum, both the Yes and No campaigns had a stall. The 16/17 year old vote has been considered very important throughout the debate, so each campaign was trying to catch the attention of the youngsters at the fair. However, as the stalls competed with tables handing out free cakes and sweets, it seemed politics was not the biggest concern of the day.
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