Many people didn’t know what Renove was – until now. This annual event in Spain in particular for fresh members is a huge highlight and one of the biggest events in AEGEE. This year 140 participants gathered La Vecilla near León from 25th to the 27th of September. If you are one of the few AEGEEans who still have never heard of this event here you have 10 reasons why Renove V was great!
By Laura Pérez, Secretary of AEGEE-León
Reason number 1: The location
Renove 5 took place in the North of Spain, León, La Vecilla. Our accommodation was in the middle of the mountains, half hostel and half cabins… The participants in the hostel wanted to be in the cabins and vice versa, in my opinion both were really cool though! The main building, where most of the rooms were, had a big dining room where we had endless parties and also the most interesting workshops, so it was crazy to see the place change from one atmosphere to another so fast.
Reason number 2: The topic
“AeGeE of Empires” was the title of the event – and we also had the coolest logo. The aim was to divide the participants in “Empires” so that they could form groups and dress up accordingly. We ended up having eight different ones: Medieval kings, Pirates, Native Americans, Chinese, Egyptians, Spanish Conquerors, Romans and Africans.
Reason number 3: the programme
AEGEE-León and the Netcom team collaborated and the programme couldn’t have been better! We had teambuilding and the Transgender Party on Friday, workshops and meetings both on Saturday and Sunday and also on Saturday a Gymkhana and our fantastic Empires Party.
Reason number 4: the Transgender Party
Since it was a weekend event we had two parties, the Transgender Party and the Empires Party… I don’t even know which one was the craziest one! Transgender Party is a theme we really like in AEGEE-León, the idea is simple; everybody has to dress up as the opposite gender, you would think that specially guys would tend to be shy but on the contrary they get crazy about it!
Reason number 5: the Empires Party
For the Empires Party everybody dressed according to their empire, the costumes were really cool. A fun fact: most of the people in the Spanish conquerors group thought it was a hard costume to find, so they chose an alternative way of dressing up – we had many “Andaluzas” and people with “Julio Iglesias” stickers. The rest of the costumes looked stunning! Just check the pictures and you’ll see.
Reason number 6: organisers and helpers
We had 15 organisers and 8 helpers. Even though most of the organisers, including myself, were pretty new to AEGEE events of this kind, all of them worked really hard following the orders and guided by the experience of our main organiser Marcos. Another fun fact: we told the helpers to dress up as slaves which they gladly did!
Reason number 7: the participants
Imagine 137 people from all around Spain and three from other European countries, all of them owning the AEGEE spirit… it was a combination of newbies and more experienced members. Everything we learned from the oldies was priceless and I’m sure they had lots of fun with us too. Meeting so many people from our network and sharing experiences is always good at many levels.
Reason number 8: Gymkhana
This was the biggest competition of this kind that I had ever participated in. Everybody was wearing the Renove T-shirt and was running around the place, trying to solve puzzles or making balloons explode.
Reason number 9: workshops, teambuilding and other activities
I especially enjoyed the antenna meeting, there were plenty of people from León and we usually don’t have the opportunity of sitting all together and talking. I know that for some other antennae there weren’t so many members…
Reason number 10: funny moments
Lunch and dinner time were extra busy! So many people enjoying the La Vecilla food – always in abundance! But this totally deserves another article. A lot of fun: walking to the cabins in the middle of the night, the owners of La Vecilla had a donkey and we saw some not so sober people talking to it, people trying to steal flags only to realize that it was not a flag but a piece of fabric…
I could continue giving more and more reasons why it was an amazing event, but you can check our – not official – video and judge for yourself!
Check it here: https://www.facebook.com/aegeeleon/videos/vb.125571067544194/736892113078750/?type=2&theater