2014 - February 23, Lunar New Year Festival
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Contents |
Event Captains
- Logistics - David Wong (dyhwong@mit.edu)
- Noms - Tiffany Wang (tiffwang@mit.edu)
- Decorations - Clare Zhang (cmzhang@mit.edu)
- Performances - Tiffany Wong(tbwong@mit.edu)
- Mini Mystery Hunt - Victor Hung (vhung@mit.edu)
Logistics
Funding
Room reservation
- book Lobdell about two years in advance (if using Lobdell)
- meet with CAC manager in mid-January
- try to fill out event registration in the early morning when all the required people are there (this takes like 20 minutes if done at the right time and 3 days if not)
- SAO seems to be enforcing getting entertainment licenses now, unlike last year
- we had to go to Cambridge Licensing Office on Mass Ave and pay a $50 fee because we had performances and were charging admission
Performances
Groups ADT - 2 dances Wellesley Aiko Brown Lion Dance Syncopasian MITCE MIT TKD
Equipment
Sound system + mixer with Cross Products managing it ~$300. Covered everything for all groups
Notes
This event happened soonish after new elections. MAKE SURE all groups are followed up on after the transition!! It is easy for people to forget to contact groups that they'd already invited and we should not let this happen.
DON'T FORGET to send a "thank you" email to all of the groups after the perform
We held open sound check between 6-6:45pm. Thought it would be easier than planning out when people would come. Note: everyone is always late and no matter what they always expect to have a sound check. Start early and maybe divvy out times (though idk if it will help because people will probably come late/miss their slot, etc)
Might be easiest to have all the performers send you their MUSIC to use. Then you only need one device and you can check sound levels before the event.
Have a nice playlist of chill asian music for eating time ^__^
Food
$1400 worth of food from JoJo Taipei
2 trays of each of the following:
- white rice
- fried rice(house style)
- four seasons green beans (四季豆)
- scallion pancakes
- mapo tofu
- fried popcorn chicken
- pepper beef
- salt and pepper pork
- spicy fish
NOTE: not exactly sure what the names of the meat dishes were; Chinese not good enough
Lots of spicy food
DESSERTS
Tangyuan
* 8 bags of glutinous rice flour * 3 kg of black sugar (had leftover) 1. make dough by mixing flour and hot water ( i used a mix of hot water and regular so I wouldn't burn my hand) 2 take pieces of dough and roll into small balls 3. If making dough balls ahead of time, put them into freezer while they are separated. After they freeze, put them in a bag together.(this way they won't stick) 4. to cook the dough balls, boil water and place dough balls into pot after water starts boiling. constantly stir because they will stick to bottom. 5. make the black sugar soup by boiling water and then adding black sugar. taste it to determine if sweet enough 6. after dough balls start to float to the top, transfer them to the soup pot. 7. stir and let the dough balls soak in flavor.
Almond Cookies
* http://chinesefood.about.com/od/dessertcookies/r/almondcookies.htm
Puzzle Hunt
Written by Victor (+Runpeng for a puzzle). The puzzles were "hidden" around Lobdell and used a texting system for answer submissions. ALL HAIL GREAT PHILOSOPHER RUNPENG LIU
Decorations and Setup
Tried something new with set-up this year. We had circle tables on the first floor of Lobdell, and rows of chairs around the performance area. It was like a triangle centered around the stage.
Tables
- 50"x108" Red Tablecloths - Made Lobdell look SUPER fancy!
- We ran out of tablecloths! D: The circle tables were a little too long and not wide enough. We cut a table cloth in half, and the two halves when rearranged could cover a table.
- Place Cards
- Clare and Tian made placecards for each table.
- Printed out on glossy paper, scored, and folded into a triangle
- Front had a nice image for LNYF
- Back had a welcome note written by Staly and Clare. Basically a "thanks for coming, the ATS family is awesome, by the way here are some of our future events" thing.
- Red Envelopes
- Placed at each seat on the placemat.
- Inside had 1 chocolate coin
- We ordered buttons to be placed in the envelopes too, but there were issues in delivery and we got them the Monday after. (FOREVER HATING NEXT DESK)
- Pocky Vases
- We should probably wash the pocky vases before using them again....
- Super Classy
- Tea Lights
- Placed 2-3 tea lights at each table. Looked really classy. :D
- Chinese Zodiac Placemats
- Reused from last year. We still have a billion more. Like, enough to last 12 more years.
Lobdell Decorations
- Lanterns (used old ones)
- Strung three lines of lanterns across the banisters
- Lanterns take a pretty significant amount of time/volunteers to string
- Big Poster
- Clare designed a big poster and printed it out using Course 4 printers. (see historian photos)
- Lobdell has a spotlight on the second floor balcony. It looks really nice shined on the poster!
- Chuang Lian
- Reused the chuang lian made by Clare, Eva, and Tian from last year
- Placed on the entrance doors to Lobdell
Setup Notes
- Event started at 7pm
- People began gathering at Next and McCormick at 4pm, arrived at Lobdell ~4:15PM
- Clare, Landon, and Staly went to Walker at ~3:30 to gather stuff (chafing dishes/racks, sternos, lanterns, placemats, vases, tablecloths)
- Food divided into two lines, one line went up the ramp immediately to the right of the entrance, the other up the steps. For the most part people ignored the ramp and proceeded to jump over chairs to get to the other side of the tables instead. Pictures available.
- Devoted space in the center (like NightMarket) for performances
- Devoted space to exec and volunteer storage in the far corner next to the food lines
- A handful of people occupied tables on the top balconies - mostly puzzlers
- Tables near the windows on the second floor were decorated but unoccupied.
Attendance & Ticket Sales
Notes
General Notes
- Perhaps at ticket sale booths, ask if people want a doorsign! If they didn't get it at the beginning of the year, they basically have no other chance to get one. Then have them at the front desk during the event.
- Puzzle hunt is a fun and unique feature of ATS LNYF but people don't form teams outside of their social groups and it can distract a little from the performances.
- Consider merging LNYF and Family Potluck, a more family-centric event, open it to the MIT public but encourage them to join an ATS family? There's already our huge public event Strait to Taiwan and it might not be necessary to have another. LNYF also has us sort of pub battling with CSC with their Lunar New Year Banquet.
