Frontier Fiesta, a University of Houston tradition dating to 1939, is a long-awaited event for students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The three-day student-led event has concerts, carnival rides, and a wide variety of cook-off competitions and more.

To give students a pregame to Frontier Fiesta, University of Houston Dining Services created, and hosted, a new event, First Fiesta. The event, held at Cougar Woods Dining Commons the week of Frontier Fiesta, mimicked on a smaller scale, what one might expect at Frontier Fiesta.

"This is part of our effort to continue and to enhance alignment with the University of Houston and their calendar. We know that Frontier Fiesta is a longtime tradition at UH and it’s one that students, faculty, and staff love,” said Alexcis Mendoza, UH Dining Services district marketing director. “So, we thought, why not kick it off, like a pregame party and kick off the Frontier Fiesta weekend with something fun.”

Food available to attendees featured Korean spicy hot dogs, Potatoe crusted hot dogs, fried pickles, and smoked brisket sandwiches. This food was chosen because it showcases some of the styles of food one might see at Frontier Fiesta.

“But also, the food is mobile. It’s handheld,” said Mendoza. “Sometimes you don’t want to sit down and have a giant full meal at a table. Sometimes you want to grab something comforting and walk around and check out the vendors.”

Outside Cougar Woods, attendees also shopped at the mini market featuring artisan vendors and had a chance to mingle and interact with goats, chickens, ducks, and rabbits thanks to a petting zoo.

It proved to be remarkably popular among students.

“I really love pets so having the chance to play with animals on campus is a really new experience to me and I had a lot of fun,” said Biology senior Nghi Tran who played with every single animal in the petting zoo. “It was such a new experience for me doing this on campus. It’s really fun and fits the theme of Frontier Fiesta.”

Mendoza said UH Dining Services wanted to incorporate a petting zoo to give students an opportunity to destress from their busy college lives.

For Health Science freshman Aariona Prince, the petting zoo definitely lifted her spirits.

“I enjoyed it because we had a lot of classes over these past few days and I feel like this was a nice time to take a break and enjoy the animals, and food,” said Prince.

Business Management freshman Naomi Galeano echoed Prince’s words.

The freshman added that both her and Prince went to Moody Towers Dining Commons first before remembering that Cougar Woods had an event. Upon arriving at Cougar Woods, the duo was taken aback.

Galeano and Princess said the event surpassed their expectations and hope it’s brought back next year.