On Thursday, Jack Adams Hall transformed into a carnival where students could win prizes, eat free food and participate in activities such as dildo ring tossing. No, that wasn’t a typo – sex education was the main focus of the inaugural Safer Sex Carnival thrown by EROS, the Education and Referral Organization for Sexuality.

“Getting the ring on the dildo was awesome,” SF State senior Lindsay Kamiya, 21 said. Her friend, Jennifer Greel agreed that the event was a "creative" way to talk about safe sex.

Projections of black and white nude photos were presented on stage while a disc jockey spun sex-themed songs, such as Chris Brown’s ballad, “Take You Down.” Students mingled and giggled as they participated in the sex-related games.

"The volunteers of EROS put this together,” said EROS director, Erin Johnson. “We only spent about $175 on pizza and flyers. Everything else, like the materials for the games were brought from home. Cookies and prizes were donated from Hot Cookie in the Castro, Subway on campus and Trader Joe’s.”

Johnson stood at the carnival's entrance handing out pink cards that could be stamped to earn prizes. By participating in games, students could earn enough stamps in to enter a raffle, earn a slice of pizza, cookies or soda. The smell of the pepperoni and cheese pizza and the sounds of hip-hop tunes were enough to lure students in. Once they saw the X-rated games, they were laughing and waiting in lines to participate.

Among the activities was "Pin the Body Part on the Person" game, a spin on the classic kids' game, "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." Participants were blindfolded and had to pin private parts onto a rainbow-colored poster of a naked body. Another game required students to approach a blow-up doll in an appropriate manner, as a way to promote respect and the importance of the phrase, “No means no.”

Along with the sex-related games, there was also one that promoted safe drinking. The rules were to take two shots of Kool-Aid juice, put on “drunk goggles” that impaired the players' vision, and then attempt to walk in a straight line. The purpose was to give students a chance to see how alcohol can affect people’s actions.

“The drinking game was my favorite,” said Sam Brown, 21. “I am really interested in EROS and think that it's a great place [because] I feel comfortable enough to talk about sexual issues and subjects like alcohol.”

The carnival event was co-sponsored by groups C.E.A.S.E., Creating Empowerment through Alcohol and Substance Abuse Education and S.A.F.E., Sexual Abuse Free Environment. The groups, both with offices in the One Stop Student Services building, helped to promote the event and assist with games and decoration.

Like Brown, student Melanie Jackson's favorite game was the drinking game. “I did surprisingly well,” said the 28-year-old.

Jackson said she remembers when the organizers tried to throw a sex education event last year. She described it as a "free for all" that did not live up to her expectations. However, this year it was different. "This carnival is really well-organized and turned out really well," Jackson said.

“I am really pleased this carnival ended up being a success and people actually came.” said Johnson, who has been the EROS director since the beginning of the semester.

Johnson said she plans to make the Safer Sex Carnival an annual thing, as long as this year’s event was a success. Judging by her statement, it seems that SF State students can expect another carnival next year.