The Student Center, normally void of activity after dinner time on the weekends, was alive with nightlife from cities all over Friday night.
City Lights: Tiger Nights provided students and members of the community opportunities to travel to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, New York and Seattle.
A free F.L.Y. concert, an oxygen bar, mechanical bull rides, open mic night and the wedding chapel were just a few of the highlights from the event.
"It was a lot of fun," said Montinique McEachern, junior in math and psychology. "Free food for students is always good, and it had a lot more different stuff than last year, so I liked that."
McEachern said she had a better time at this year's Tiger Nights than she did last year.
"We have been preparing for Tiger Nights all year long," said Glendinning Johnston, UPC director of the fine arts committee for 2010-2011. "Everything seems to be going over pretty well. It's been an amazing turnout--way better than our last Tiger Nights."
Johnston said the publicity was probably the reason for the success.
"We have a lot more attractions, and I think the publicity has been great," Johnston said. "We even had a commercial. A lot of families have come with their kids."
The commercial came out of the budget for Tiger Nights, Johnston said.
"Each committee has a set budget, and it comes out of your tuition," Johnston said. "We also make money off the non-students who come."
McEachern said she was disappointed in the concert, however.
"As far as the concert goes, I was hoping that we would have had an act that was more established, because they only have two popular songs," McEachern said. "I'm just glad it was free. They weren't very good live performers and couldn't hold the crowd's attention."
Some students thought the highlight of the F.L.Y. concert was the impromptu dance performance by two Auburn students.
Jon Glover, junior in accounting, and Logan Copley, Phenix City resident, joined F.L.Y. on stage, and received loud cheers for their dancing.
"There were some other people on stage, and then my friend Logan and I started dancing," Glover said. "We decided to do what we call some freak dancing, and we wooed everyone. There were a lot of shawtys up front, and they were kind of touchy/feely a little, but I guess that's part of the game when you're a big rap star like us now."
Glover said he thought his dance was the highlight of Tiger Nights.
"I did a really original, eclectic dance," Copley said. "I think it was sort of a dance that typical, white, nerdy guys do with their friends, and apparently that is also popular among all types of folks. I didn't crowd surf, unfortunately, but some girls did touch me--not inappropriately though."
Cecily Hornady, senior in marketing, experienced the oxygen bar.
"You can choose the different types of scents you want to smell for five minutes, and then you can watch TV or listen to music, and it's just really calming and soothing," Hornady said. "The scent I chose was lavender, so it was calming, but there was no high or anything like that. It was kind of like smelling a candle."
Brittany Stringfield, sophomore in nutrition dietetics, said she was surprised with the quality of the event.
"I just think it's neat that they can put something this big together that's free for all students, because it's a major production," Springfield said.
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