By Jamie Iglesias
Daily Titan Staff Writer

Students in costumes, free pizza, raffles and music by Sirah were part of the Costume Catwalk held at Cal State Fullerton’s Becker Amphitheatre on Oct. 28.

A student shows off her costume for the Halloween costume contest at the Becker Amphitheatre on Wednesday, October 28, 2009. Photo by Ron Fu/Daily Titan Staff Photographer

“The music, the pizza, the costumes and the atmosphere of Halloween brought a lot of people out,” said Andrew Lopez, chief communications officer for Associated Students Inc. “I think we had a huge turnout,” he said.

At the beginning of the event, each of the 17 participants walked down the catwalk modeling their unique costumes.

Once they were all seated, Joe Lopez, executive vice president for ASI, and Andrew Lopez began raffling CSUF gear.

Joe Lopez then asked the participants to go up to the stage to answer five questions for prizes. Each of the questions pertained to the campus.

After the questioning was over, the participants were asked to go to their seats and await the decision of the three judges for the best costume.

During the deliberation, Sirah came on stage and began performing. She introduced herself and began rapping for everyone attending the event.

Sirah entertained the audience for approximately 20 minutes and as her performance progressed, she went over to the audience and made some of them sing during her performance.

“I thought that everyone got into it. Sirah went out to the audience and had them sing with her. She was really good,” said Tiffany Santana, 17, a pre-nursing major.

Toward the end of the event, Joe Lopez asked Sirah if she would call out the name of the winner; she announced the four best costumes in order.

The first place winner was Rachel Baumsten, 21, a theater arts major who dressed up as swine flu. She went up sneezing and coughing as she received her prizes.

Baumsten wore a nursing outfit, with a pig nose and wings, looking pale with dark reddish makeup under her eyes.

Rachel Baumsken, 21, poses for a photo after winning first place for her costume of "swine flew" at the Halloween costume party on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at the Becker Amphitheatre. Photo by Ron Fu/Daily Titan Staff Photographer

“It seems like everybody is breaking out with the swine flu, and I was trying to think of something cool to do for a costume to show my friends at parties, and it hit me that it was appropriate and good timing,” Baumsten said.

“The costumes were clever, especially the swine flu. Nobody would ever think of doing that especially during this time of the year,” said Jessica Calderon, 23, a theater major.

“I thought that maybe if I was lucky, I would pull out fourth place because I did not think that people would think it was that funny. I am glad they did, and I am really excited,” Baumsten said.

As the first place winner, Baumsten received a $100 Visa gift card. Other prizes included gift cards to Anchor Blue, In & Out and ESPN Zone.

The event was sponsored by Insight, Buffalo Exchange, ESPN Zone, Halloween Shop, In & Out, ASI, The Daily Titan, Titan Tusk Force and ASI Productions.