To kick off the fall 2025 semester, The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) held their annual start of year festival, Minerpalooza. With immersive vibrant spotlights flashing on talented musicians, as they faced head-to-head in Battle of the Bands, walking around the Centennial Plaza and enjoying activities like painting flowerpots or making bag charms. Minerpalooza had it all.
Sept. 5 marked Minerpalooza’s 35th anniversary, bringing in 25,000 staff and students to celebrate the start of the school year. Giving the opportunity for organizations to come together to fundraise and make exciting activities for their students. Also, giving local bands a platform and a chance to compete for one week’s worth of studio sessions.
As a first-year student, I was overwhelmed with joy walking into Centennial Plaza. First, walking to the food court outside the student union, I saw a variety of different meals and snacks being served. Carne asada, birria tacos, pizza, popcorn and lemonade. You could smell food all the way from Fox Fine Arts.
After checking out the food, I began my journey waiting in a 10-minute line to get tickets for activities, expecting tickets to be expensive. I was pleased to know that the tickets were $1 each. Spending $15, it was a good enough amount to spend at five student booths. While waiting I was greeted by the staff who gave us free tickets to the football game valid for Sept. 6.
Starting off in student booths I ended up first at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) booth. Two tickets to make a custom bag charm using beads and safety pins, it was a nostalgic craft to make. Then off to the next booth, for three tickets I was able to paint two mini flowerpots.By the Fox Fine Arts building there were numerous local vendors selling their crafts. From handmade jewelry all the way to candles and pillow sprays, each vendor sold a vast number of things. I was able to buy a crochet mushroom, matching crochet dog key chains with my partner, and a key chain where you pick out the charms and the vendor makes it right in front of you.
After a long 30 minutes of shopping around, we found ourselves hungry. From scouting what to eat in the beginning, I knew exactly what would hit the spot, birria tacos. Now onto the longest line, after almost an hour wait to get our food, plus paying for an $8 lemonade, that mostly taste like lemon water, I was finally able to bite into my tacos. The meat was perfect, the salsa was spicy, and the consume had a lot of flavors. But, $30 for six tacos and two dried up limes was not ideal.
As the night closed off, I wanted to do one more thing, $3 hair tinsel. Although I waited 45 minutes in line, my hair never looked better with blue holographic sparkled strands flowing in the air. Besides the long lines and overpriced food, Minerpalooza was a big hit. As it brought the Miner community together, it was very eye opening to see just how many students this campus holds. I am confident in saying I will be attending again in fall 2026.
Mia Colmenero is layout editor at The Prospector and may be reached at @[email protected].
