The University of Wisconsin-Platteville French and German Clubs hosted their 17th annual Fasching and Carnival celebration in Velzy Commons on March 4.

With the help of SUFAC and the Department of Humanities, the French and German Clubs were able to make the celebration a free-admission event and opened it to the public.

The festival provided guests with an opportunity to experience a combination of German traditions of Fasching and French traditions of Carnival.

Carnival comes from the Latin word carnival, which is translated as “farewell to flesh.”

Carnival season begins annually on Jan. 6, or the Twelfth Night, and ends at midnight on Fat Tuesday, otherwise known as Mardis Gras.

The faculty organizers of the event included Humanities Department members Laura Anderso and Madame Gwladys Renaudeau, Education Department member Edina Haslauer and Humanities and Foreign Language Department member Madelon Köhler-Busch.

Collaborating together, they typically attract a majority of French and German Club students in order to participate in Carnival each year.

As the guests entered the door, they were welcomed with free Mardi Gras beads.

Later on, they were able to choose from various stations of games, including darts, twister, which was led in French and German, a life-size chess set, face painting and many other different activities.

The night also featured an audience participation bingo game, limbo contest and costume contest, where teams of adults and children worked together to create a costume made out of newspaper and masking tape.

A table of French and German food and beverages was avaliable, which included a variety of choices such as bratwurst, French onion soup and German potato salad.

The Barehanded Wolfchokers band returned to Carnival this year, performing for the event and providing music for guests to dance on the dance floor.

“The band, which is always great, added a new twist this year,” Anderson said. “They led a New Orleans-style parade through Velzy Commons, twice.”

Throughout the night, guests were able to make donations that went to the Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors without Borders, organization.