Annual Island Party features renowned singer

The stage lit up and the microphone turned on for Jimmy Needham. He looked out on stage and played his first song, echoing through the theater and keeping the audience of 200 people enthralled.

Beta Upsilon Chi hosted its annual Island Party on April 13 with the contemporary Christian artist Needham performing to kick-start the event in Dunham Theater.

Senior Phanuel Roxas, vice president of BYX and the event coordinator of the BYX Island Party, said he received an email from Needham’s agent and found Needham’s name from a list that the agent gave Roxas.

With Needham being a Houston native, Roxas responded, requesting more information and hammered out the budget to allow Needham to perform for the event.

“Jimmy is such a great man of God,” Roxas said. “You can definitely tell through his actions and his words that he is a humble man and shows just how much he loves the Lord.”

After the Needham performance, attendees were invited to join BYX for food and games in Holcombe Mall where another band and a few singers performed in front of the Hinton Center.

Toward the end of Island Party, as the crowd began to diminish, all of the BYX pledges came on stage in sweatpants and large sweatshirts and began to dance along to mainstream music, then the guys soon came out in dresses and wigs and started dancing and singing along to Disney princess songs.

Freshman Anthony Aguinaga, who played Jasmine from “Aladdin,” said he was nervous about the performance at first and what people would think about him.

“The outcome was even better than I expected,” Aguinaga said. “Everyone laughed even though I forgot most of my words, but we really had fun with it and people loved it and that’s all that matters.”

Aguinaga added that this was a great chance to spend time with his fraternity brothers and get to know them more.

Sophomore Brandon Jo, who played Mulan, said that he loves his brothers and he had fun spending a lot of time with his brothers while practicing for this dance.

“I am really proud of my BYX brothers,” he said. “I know we have a long journey ahead of us as strong pledge brothers.”

Roxas said that he believes the outcome of the event was successful, and that he received positive responses from the approximately 200 people who attended the event.

Sophomore Rain Heard said she enjoyed herself with the entertainment and food that was provided.

“I thought the event was really awesome, and it was pretty fun to be there,” Heard said.

Roxas said that next year’s Island Party would hopefully meet the standards of this year and that more people would attend in the future.

“You can expect that next year will be even better, we hope to build off of this event and continue to grow Island Party and BYX. We are excited for future island parties,” he said.