On Friday September 23, Fresno City College’s annual City Fest returned after a two year hiatus, Raising up to $6,000 with around 275 people in attendance. 

City Fest features dancing and music festivities, there was plenty of food and drinks being served as a lot of the community regarding FCC had attended including previous faculty and staff.

During City Fest, a silent auction was held where they raised money for the scholarship by taking bids on items and selling each item to the highest bidder. 

On display along the edges of the courtyard hallways were auction items like paintings, pieces of art, various forms of jewelry, plants, a lot of gift baskets, and even a heavy duty outdoor grill which would cost up to thousands of dollars.

Although guests were given an opportunity to get a drink ticket at the entrance when you first register, they were required to buy another from one of the vendors inside for $7 per ticket, or $20 for 3 tickets to continue getting drinks. Guests were given a choice of wine or beer glass based on the desired alcoholic beverages.

Event organizer Ernie Garcia said that he invites all, but has also stated that they don’t market it necessarily towards students because there is alcohol. 

The event was mainly for faculty, staff and the community. However, students are more than welcome to come.

“City Fest is for the faculty, community and staff to get together and have a good time. The night is to overall have fun all the while raising money for a scholarship,” Garcia said

As for students working at City Fest, sometimes they will have a student club come help them put out tablecloths or errands that helped them prepare for the main event. The work during the actual event is all volunteer from the staff and friends.

So far they’ve met or exceeded their goals of having people come and attend/buying tickets, but because it’s their first time coming back since 2019, they had no idea how large the party will be this time around, exceeding their expectations of 275 people in attendance. Every year they usually have well over 300 people, starting all the way back to the first City Fest in 2015.

The event’s effort is to put money into the Dean’s Medallion scholarship, named after the Dean of Counseling Monica Criado-Cuevas who passed away last year in December.

The scholarship is then awarded like a Valedictorian award, given to a graduate of FCC in May  each year who exemplifies the qualities of hard work, determination, and academic excellence.