The Rebel Events Board (REB) recently hosted its first Rebels After Dark event of the school year, which featured a painting party night in the Student Union courtyard. Free pizza, painting, and giving out Life Is Beautiful tickets are a few of the festivities that students took part in.
The event welcomed 643 students from across campus, the largest recorded attendance for a Rebels After Dark event, according to the Involvement Center’s Event Pass database. The last Rebels After Dark movie night held in May of 2022 had 280 students in attendance.
Because of the increased turnout at recent REB events, members in the board said that they are hoping to improve at predicting turnout so they can properly provide students with supplies.
“With students returning to in-person instruction on campus, we have noticed a huge increase in turn-out at all of our events,” said Luis Plascencia, evening events director with REB. “We easily saw 200-300 more people at our events which meant that we needed to ensure that we wouldn’t run out of supplies. We projected to have 500 people attend this event, so we only bought food and painting supplies for that amount and as of right now, we have run out of supplies again. While we are thrilled with the turnout, we plan to improve this for future events. ”
With the increased demand for student events on campus, CSUN Student Government has allocated a total of $70,000 to REB according to CSUN public records. The funding for Rebels After Dark Events fall under their special events allocation column which totals at $18,000.
While past CSUN administrations have instead funded their own student events, Student Body President Issac Hernandez says that he felt that it was important that his administration uplift REB since they are a registered student organization dedicated to hosting student events.
“We wanted to put the money into an organization on campus that already holds events for students,” Hernandez said. “By giving them additional funding, they would be able to welcome more students.”
In reflecting on the event, Hernandez said that CSUN is pleased with the turnout.
“Rebel After Dark events are difficult to predict because it’s a commuter campus, but I will say the turnout for tonight’s event is definitely of satisfaction to CSUN because we expect to see students show up to events,” said Hernandez. “We want to see large crowds and hear students tell their friends about their experience.”
With the larger turnouts at recent REB events, the organization itself has also grown. Currently there are 8 board members who oversee the planning and implementation of events. REB also has volunteers that assist at their events by checking in students and serving food, among other things.
Looking to the future, REB is excited to host a Latin Foodie Fest this upcoming Wednesday.
“Outside of the Foodie Fest, I am most excited for our next Rebels After Dark event which will feature a Halloween Prom night and take place in late October,” said Plascencia.
