May 22, 2013, by Malvika Johal

May Fest – What a day!

Hundreds of alumni returned to the University last Saturday as part of May Fest, the University’s open day for the community.

It was a day jam-packed with activities for all ages, highlights included the ever popular Thunder and Lighting show organised by the Chemistry department, with colourful explosions this demonstration didn’t disappoint and was a spectacular show! ‘Infalterverse’ – organised by our Physics department gave visitors the chance to experience our inflatable planetarium which brought astronomy a little closer to home.

Alumni were invited to join us for a free lunch at the Hemsley which was transformed into the Alumni House. Visitors enjoyed photo exhibitions dating back to the 1950s, caught up with old friends over coffee and cake and enjoyed a wonderful finger buffet. It was great to see so many

of our alumni returning back to campus and making use of this space that was reserved exclusively for our alumni community.

The Hemsley was bustling with alumni reminiscing, and some like the class of 1993 organised a successful 20 year reunion to coincide with May Fest and make the most of everything on offer. Nigel Bowthorpe (Industrial Economics 1993) commented: ““I hope we all manage to catch up next year. I’d certainly be keen for the annual pilgrimage to “gods own” campus. What a fantastic place it is, and what great memories of such care free, fun filled times with you all.  How lucky were we ….”.

 

Here in the office we clearly think food is important as not only did we offer all returning alumni a free lunch, but we also threw in free cake and unlimited tea and coffee throughout the day at the Alumni Hub. By midday we had run out of cake and will be making sure we order three times as much for next year!

I hope we made our alumni community feel welcome and appreciated; it was lovely to see so many of you returning to campus, acting as ambassadors and role models to current students and maintaining the relationships created whilst you were here.

Our alumni events calendar has all the upcoming dates for reunions and events, and if you would like to organise a reunion for your year group please get in touch. Keep an eye out for May Fest 2014 dates, and if you only return for coffee and cake and to say hi, it really is worth making a trip back to campus! For a round up of the day see our Storify.

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