On Monday night, Edina High School students took to the stage performing everything from Mac DeMarco to the White Stripes while their peers munched on tacos and shaved ice. As the Powderpuff game finished, students flocked to the parking lot to enjoy the evening. 

A popular Homecoming week attraction, Tacos and Tunes is organized by the Edina Student Council. Senior Aidan Einhorn led the committee for the event. “I think having a musical event to kick off that energy is a super cool experience…I hope for the rest of the week, it gets people excited for what’s to come with the parade and coronation,” he said. 

Any EHS student could sign up to perform, and many took advantage of the opportunity. Merari Fajardo and Anousha Sharma, both freshmen, sang and played their guitars. The pair began making music together during quarantine. “We started like, ‘Hey, let’s jam out’! Recently, we saw we could perform and we just said, ‘Why not?’” Fajardo said. 

Some students transferred their musical theater background onto the stage. “I’ve done theater since elementary school. This year, ‘Mamma Mia,’ I think this is my 27th musical,” junior Sophia Azmi said. “I think [Tacos and Tunes] is a really great opportunity to do what you love and meet a bunch of new people.” 

Freshman Tommy Molldrem explained the energy of theater and performing for a crowd are very different. “In theater, you don’t really see the audience. You feel like you’re performing with each other, but you know [the audience] is there,” he said. 

Tacos and Tunes is an opportunity for students to be with their friends, both on and off-stage. Sophomore Bennett Smalley played the drums for a group of his friends who performed, and explained his goal with music is to simply have fun. “It’s really just a fun thing with friends, I mean, that was a lot of fun so I probably will want to do that again in the future,” he said.  

The event was a successful kickoff to the homecoming week and a fun opportunity for students to enjoy live music again.