The music, interrupted by regular promotional announcements hit the air. Glitters of crafts and jewelries shone in the sales carpets. Strategically hanged garments shouted their beauties while hundreds of items, resting under tent-shades awaited their admirers. Hundreds, if not thousands of feet roamed allover; customers searched for their choices, and indeed the ground looked a business hub.

But, were these all about that bazaar? Not at all!
In terms of eats and drinks, the bazaar, for the first time brought in a mini restaurant supplemented by meat roasting which persuasive aroma drew to its direction, every nose that crossed the path. Hunger and thirst were never a threat.
To the students and exhibitors alike, there was a common feeling; the bazaar was a success.
"To be honest, this was the best bazaar the university has ever had. I think the organizers made good connections; there was a large turn-up from exhibitors and buyers. The bazaar was lively," complimented Mariam Kawala BBA III.
"I loved the way traders have responded. There were more dealers and items. This time students had more to choose from unlike in the past where we were restricted to few choices," she added.
When asked what she thought about the trade activity this time round, Loyce Atekit, an employee of Post Bank, and exhibitor during the trade activity was all but overwhelmed.
"This is a promising business ground. Every bazaar that passes by, students seems to be getting more interested," she said.
And to her, it was not only the thriving business to appreciate, but also the student characters.
"Definitely the university and this community deserve a loud applause. The students are well behaved. Everyone I have seen around seems to be very concerned about the impression that his/her action and appearance have. I loved that. The students are well behaved," she added.
With praises approaching from various corners, Kantaki Olga Mozoora and Alex Wambi, the two guild officials who spearheaded the organization for the bazaar couldn't help, but join in the chorus.
"This bazaar has really made us proud. It is good to know that our effort wasn't in vein. We are glad because people have come to appreciate our endeavours. This gives us the hope that the student guild is getting somewhere with its project," they said.
Ambitious and determined as they sounded, the university community should expect much more from the guild trade bazaars in future.
"To us this is just the start. We are confident that if all goes well we shall use this experience to organize a better one in January. Many of the exhibitors are promising to come back and some are ready to book for spaces now," they revealed.
Mozoora is the Guild's Internal Affairs minister while Wambi is her deputy
In addition the two guild officials attributed their success to the good ground work and support they had both from the students and university administration.
"We did a good research. We planned in advance; visited various bazaar grounds and learnt the basics of how to organise a successful bazaar," they said adding that, "We also took on an aggressive campaign to publicize the activity especially by using the media."
The other factor the organizers cited were the contributions of Pepsi Colla, (main sponsor), in addition to September semester being a major intake which guaranteed large turn-up of customers.
About the university administration, the officials said,
"The administration was very supportive. The DOSA in particular gave us vital advice and guidance whenever needed. He speeded the approval of our requisitions and through him we made timely adjustments on certain policy issues like time limits for the daily trade activities," they said.
Unlike in the previous bazaars, where trading activities were stopped at 8pm, this time round business went on till 10pm. The exhibitors were also granted their request to operate on weekends.
Despite these flow of praises, a section of the business personalities said much still needs to be done.
A vividly angry lady who deals in second hand cloth complained that the customer turn-up was not as they were told.
"Your people, (Guild), told us that there are very many buyers here. Some of us were very disappointed because very few buyers have turned up. It was even worse because other than students, the surrounding community never came to buy from this bazaar," she complained.
Another lady who deals in crafts said,
"The organizers made a mistake in positioning dealers. How do they expect us to attract customers when we, who display our items on the ground, are hidden in between garment dealers with curtains hanging everywhere?" she asked.
But the guild officials defended their positioning strategy saying,
"Honestly speaking we did a good plan. We made sure that dealers in related items were placed in the same areas for easy accessibility by buyers."
Wambi however noted that the guild will engage in a serious drive to lure the surrounding communities into buying during the bazaar.
"We want to assure our neighbours that this bazaar is open to all. They can freely come in and buy whatever they want," he said.
On matters of low customer turn-up, Mariam Kawala, a BBA III student said that vendors might have themselves to blame.
"Some of these vendors brought items that can't appeal to a university student. I advise that one first knows students' taste and preference before deciding what items to bring," she observed.
In a related development Kawala added that the students should take responsibility over the bazaar.
"As students, let us treat this bazaar project as our own. I think it will be good if students first buy from the bazaar ground and only go out for the items they didn't get here," she advised.