On Saturday night, Candela: Latin Dance Club hosted its second-annual banquet themed “Desfiles de Faroles.” The Mandela Room was transformed into a celebratory space, offering Latin dance performances, food, games and an open dance floor.

Founded in 2023, Candela teaches Latin dance to all and used their second-annual banquet as a chance to platform representation and appreciate community.

“It’s the one event a year where we get to have a large-scale event,” said Ciara Garcia, a junior majoring in economics and the president of Candela. “It’s where we have so many supporters that come to our [general body meetings], come to our events, support us in fundraisers and it’s just one event where we could just have everybody in the same room and just enjoy each other.”

Upon arrival, guests were warmly welcomed by cheering Candela interns dressed in tropical white beach attire, creating a warm atmosphere as guests socialized and settled into their seats. Attendees posed with friends at the photo booth while a DJ played Latin pop music.

The Mandela Room was filled with festive energy, brightly illuminated by neon lights and red lanterns that brought the banquet’s cohesive theme to life.

“Our first annual banquet, we kind of like all looked for ideas and pitched in, but we chose it being like a holiday in Central America, which was Día de los Niños,” said Emily Valentin, a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience and Candela’s vice president. “So we decided to keep that theme for our second banquet, and we kind of looked at which holidays are from, like, underrated countries, so we chose Costa Rica. And we saw a lantern festival that they do, so we thought it’d be a really cute theme to kind of highlight that country’s culture and their festival.”

Desfiles de Faroles, or “Lantern Parade,” is a Costa Rican festival that marks Central American independence. The lanterns used in the celebration represent freedom and honor the historical connection between Guatemala and Costa Rica during the Spanish colonial era. To celebrate this tradition, lanterns were set on every table in the Mandela Room.

Throughout the evening, guests were treated to performances that showcased the diversity of dance across campus. Tropical Ecstasy — Binghamton’s Caribbean dance team — energized the room with a choreographed performance with an afrobeats sound. Dancers wore white ruffled crop tops and shorts, syncing their movements with the fast-paced beat.

Black Dance Repertoire brought their own powerful style and energy to the stage, dancing to Bad Bunny. The dancers wore crop tops, red leggings and flowers in their hair, meshing with the atmosphere of the night as many in the audience cheered.

Melissa Sanchez, a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law and Candela’s senior advisor, performed with the Black Dance Repertoire for the event.

“I really fell in love with just being able to teach other people what I love to do, and seeing how all of my [general body] members have grown from my freshman year till now,” Sanchez said of her experience with Candela. “Like it just shows how impactful this organization is because we have people still coming back and back to learn more dances, no matter what.”

As the event went on, multiple fun games encouraged attendees to participate by joining the hosts on stage. The balloon pop challenge is one example, where participants ran to pop a balloon on their partner’s lap, racing to get more pops than their competitors. The pairs would have to switch every time they popped the balloon. The game resulted in the audience laughing and applauding the comical chaos bursting off stage.

Afterward, a bachata competition took place, where couples competed for the spot of best bachata dancers in the audience. The dance, originating from the Dominican Republic, was in full swing as couples twirled and twisted intimately. The Mandela Room roared with applause as the couples showed off their skills and finished strongly.

For much of the night, people celebrated through music and conversation, with an open dance floor at the end of the event. The banquet created an atmosphere that brought students from different cultural backgrounds together, allowing them to connect through a shared appreciation for Latin music and dance.

“I feel like bridging the multicultural community here on campus is such a big deal,” Garcia said. “It personally made my college experience so much easier just by finding a community here on campus, and if I’m able to provide that through a banquet or through any events that we do, I would love to extend that hand, because it was given to me and it was the best thing I could ever ask for.”