Every year, Sahuaro’s Concert Choir puts on POPSTA, a delicious combination of spaghetti and pop songs. The choir did an excellent job planning, setting up, and performing for the event. Before the start, choir director, Ms. Barnes said, “POPSTA is an annual spaghetti dinner that we do… it is our biggest fundraiser and we like to travel with the funds that we raise, and also it’s just really fun to do.” Although it wasn’t a typical “fancy” concert, it was family-friendly and fun for all who were there. This year, POPSTA’s theme was Disney songs, but there were many other genres of songs for the audience to enjoy, such as romance, pop, and Christmas songs; the guests even got to hear an original song which was written by Zander Basham’s father and performed by the duo.

The evening started with an invocation, and then everyone got up to get their pasta. The first song was “Be Our Guest,” which was adorable and fitting for the occasion, sung by the whole choir. The performance then continued with solos and duos. Amazingly, not only did these young artists sing, but some included their acting skills. This made the concert more entertaining, and for those who chose to act, it made their performances more interesting.

The best thing about POPSTA was how the students pulled off the performances, decorations, and planning with few technical difficulties. The ones that they did have were solved or played off well enough that the audience wasn’t even sure if it was part of the act or not. Being able to see behind the scenes of set-up and clean-up, I saw how hard the choir worked to pull off the event, and how long they were willing to stay to put the cafeteria back to an appropriate state. The choir students headed immediately after classes to start putting up lights, a backdrop, tables and centerpieces, and setting up the sound system.

Along with the audience, the Concert Choir had so much fun at POPSTA. Choir president Maelynn Sermeno said, “Today definitely didn’t go as expected, it had a lot of ups and downs, but I’m glad about the turnout.” Another choir student, senior Tayler Clark said, “We have so much fun at POPSTA, and it’s a great event to have every year. We always have the most fun, especially hearing everybody’s solos and all the songs we do together.”