The Road to Mr and Miss Freshette: Behind the Scenes
The SRC Events Committee for 2016 is eager for students to witness the magic that they have tirelessly created over the past three week. The committee, which comprises of ten students and two SRC Executive members, have spent the last month or so planning and organizing the Mr and Miss Freshette beauty pageant contest said to take place Saturday, 2 April 2016, at the Indoor Sports Centre on South Campus.
Due to the #FeesMustFall protests that took place late last year, many proceeding and events have been delayed, in particular the electing of the Events Committee. As a result, the students that are part of the committee were limited to three weeks to organize and plan the event, whereas in previous years the event was planned over a five to six month period.
Given this short time-frame students were split to work on two individual portfolios namely; the Production group that focused on aspects such as choreography and entertainment and the Marketing group that focused on aspects such as marketing the event and finding sponsors, which ultimately contributed to the overall event. In addition to working in a group for these specific portfolios they were assigned individual tasks.
With regards to sponsorships, the team was able to gather a total six sponsors for the overall event. These include Placecol, sponsoring two beauty hampers including face scrubs, creams etc.; Walk in Closet, sponsoring two clothing vouchers valued at R250 each for the Mr and Miss Freshette winner; Manati’s Hair Salon, sponsoring Miss Freshette winner a nail art voucher valued at R390; South African Breweries, sponsoring sound and bar infrastructure; Sophisticate Models Modelling Agency, sponsoring 6 months contracts for Mr and Miss Freshette winners (each worth R1200); and lastly their most prominent sponsor Jenni Gault International Jewellery Design who is sponsoring gifts and gift voucher to the value of over R20 000.
Furthermore the workload and limited time did not in any way affect their creativity as they explored the idea of having an African theme for the event. When asked what they were most excited about the upcoming event, many responded that they were excited about the unique theme chosen for this year, which has never been done at NMMU before. “The theme for the event is a transition of how the modern world has come about. The main theme [is] UMOJA, transitioning to Sofia Town then to the modern 21st century ‘suit and tie man,’” said Zondwa Khandanisa.
In conjunction with this theme is the entertainment and although the details of the entertainment could not be offered, committee member Bajabulile Makaya said, “[to] prepare to be blown away- we have taken it straight to the African roots.”
Tickets for the Mr and Miss Freshette event are currently being sold at all student Governance and Development and SRC offices and will be sold on the day of the event at the door.