Bucking good time at UOW WOW Festival

The three-day spectacle that is the UOW Wheel of Wellbeing (WOW) Festival hit the ground running on Tuesday with a host of activities at the university’s duckpond lawn.

Jump for Joy, where people try to ride an inflatable mechanical bull, was one of the biggest hits with students.

And importantly students seemed to be feeling good about themselves, much to the pleasure of organisers Koolobong Village and UOW Wellbeing.

Student Wellbeing coordinator Ninan Mathew said the main aim of the festival was to give students’ wellbeing a boost.

The event includes a range of activities across the six areas of the wheel – body, mind, spirit, people, place and planet, which are all aimed at improving overall wellbeing.

‘’It’s a very peer-led program of events. Students come up with suggestions around the wellbeing wheel and we tweak them and come up with the activities,’’ Mr Mathew said.

The wheel in question was developed in the UK by current Koolobong Village students residence manager Tony Coggin, and his team.

‘’We developed the wheel as a framework to talk about wellbeing, but not just physical wellbeing but psychological wellbeing as well,’’ Mr Coggin said.

‘’The idea behind things like the WOW Festival is so that students engage and experience these fun and interesting activities.

‘’We want students and staff to learn how to look after their wellbeing in fun, practical ways so they can perform at their peak.’’

This year's activities include a jumping castle, silent disco tours, yoga, African drumming, balcony gardening, art and craft workshops, flower arranging and circus workshops.

But it seems like students are also in the mood for some puppy love in 2017.

‘’Puppies make everyone happy, so we’ll have some puppies on campus on Wednesday,’’ Mr Mathew said.

‘’They will be coming from animal shelters. The aim is to get these puppies into the foster care system.’’

The festival continues on Wednesday and Thursday.