With the 30th annual homecoming only two more days away, students celebrated the annual Queen Pageant, Oct. 29, to get to know the homecoming court queen nominees. The event featured a unique fashion show, a video all about the queen nominees and lip sync concert.

Many students get excited for the occasion and the mounting hype around homecoming, while others remained indifferent. Wyatt Koop, ’18, shared his thoughts and expectations for the pageant.

“I don’t really have any expectations for the queen pageant,” Koop said. “I really couldn’t care less because I’m not going to homecoming and as to who the princesses are, is irrelevant to me. It’s just not something to do attend that would be worth any of my time.”

Others students remained positive however. Alena Orth, ’17, shared her enthusiasm and wishes for the event.

“I expect to see a lot of fun in the Queen pageant and everybody getting super excited and thrilled,” Orth said. “I think that we had a good choice of the queens this year and I hope that the whole process runs smoothly and that everyone has a good time.”

The pageant opened with the queen candidates all lined up on stage. Elise Winegarden, Mikayla Miller, Gaby Siqueiros, Callista Fries and Ivette Ibarra each walked down the catwalk, introduced by the king candidates. Each king picked out a crazy outfit for one of the queens. The clothes varied from basketball shorts and soccer jerseys to banana costumes and plastic leis.

Afterward, a video featuring the queens began, each queen explaining why they thought students should vote for them. The video also had the nominees share what the best attribute about the others was as well as answering questions such as who would make the best date chaperone or survive in a horror movie.

Some students, like Kathryn Blankenship, ’17, enjoyed the video more than the pageant itself this year.

“I really liked the video. I thought it was funny and it was cool how they acted out their stories and stuff,” Blankenship said. I didn’t really like the actual pageant itself. It was funny when they started lip syncing but it got kinda boring. I miss last years pageant with all the challenges and food.”

Next, the queens, still dressed in their outfits and with microphones in hand, took turns heading down the catwalk into the crowd lip syncing along to different songs. The lip syncing quickly turned into dancing as well, and students sang along, cheered and waved their phones like an audience at a concert.

Senior queen nominee Elise Winegarden, originally worried that the pageant would not engage with the students or live up to previous years and shared her anxieties.

“My expectations for the pageant is just to go hard or go home sort of mentality. We just need to have some fun and go all out and not worry about what other people think about you and just kinda go crazy!” Winegarden said. “Although I think the pageants are lots of fun, I personally think that the pageants are also getting lamer each year. So they could probably step up their game a bunch. I mean the whole week is a lot of fun.”
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Winegarden shares her hopes for the week and enjoys homecoming and the atmosphere it brings to the school.

“Dressing up and just having fun and going all out is my main goal for the week. I wish we could have weeks like this more often,” Winegarden said. “In my past years, FC has done cooler activities for the pageants and they used to be longer as well, and I wish we could just go back to the way it was before. I love the whole atmosphere of homecoming and it just brings people together and friends closer. In all it really is just a fun time for everybody.”

Winegarden’s expectations seem to have been met, however, with many students expressing their enjoyment in the pageant. Andrew Guthrie, ’15, weighed in with his thoughts.

“It was the best I’ve seen,” Guthrie said. “I loved the whole set up, and the dancing during the lip sync was great. Having a ‘queen dance’ was pretty awesome.”

The 30th annual homecoming will be on the north field at 7 p.m., Oct. 31. Homecoming candidates will be introduced during the pre-game at 6:30, and the homecoming court announced during half-time.

This writer can be reached via Twitter: @Nhojnamood

For more features, read the Oct. 28 article, Pageant entertains audience, embarrasses candidates (VIDEO).