The 8th English Festival in Shantou University was delayed because of the first H1N1 flu case at Shantou University appeared on December 8th. The event will be put off till next semester, though the students who are participating in it are still working on it.
The English Festival this year was supposed to be in the Great Hall on the 11th to 13th of December. But when the first swine flu case appeared, the university took action immediately. The Great Hall and the Science Lecture Hall were all closed to use in order to prevent the swine flu from spreading among crowds of people.
The Festival consists of three major parts: Opening Ceremony, Speech Contest and Singing Contest which are each held separately. In the Opening Ceremony, there was to be dancing, singing and a drama called Rebirth that included 30 actors this year. The contestants of the Speech and Singing contests were from other universities, as well as STU. However, all the plane tickets for guests were canceled just two days before the festival.
Students who are in charge of English Festival said that they are willing to wait for several months and they believe the English Festival will be even more fantastic. Many people who were eager to see the festival said that it is a pity to see the delay but they know it was unpredictable. English Festival is considered to be one of the biggest events every year on campus. Several other activities were also canceled or postponed, including the Top Ten Singing Contest and the series activities of the Kan Tai-Keung Design Award.
