A performance by hip-hop artist Common at Fall Fest Saturday capped off nine days of Welcome Week activities.

Welcome Week offered students shopping trips to Target, a student organization fair in the Marvin Center and the transformation of the Smith Center into a dance club.

“We are really pleased and excited about how Welcome Week has been going, and our collaboration with our partners has only helped increase the awareness on campus and attendance at events,” said Debra Berger, coordinator for student involvement at the Student Activities Center.

Program Board Chair Maria Bea Querido said volunteers counted more attendees at this year’s Fall Fest than at last year’s event.

Organizers credited the success of the event to planning.

“We’ve done more research on what students would enjoy from headliner choice, to entertainers, amusements and giveaways,” said Querido, a senior. Program Board plans Fall Fest annually and Spring Fling in April.

PB used online advertisements in addition to posters to promote the event and got student feedback in the planning stages. The event also welcomed an increasingly diverse array of corporate sponsors including Coca-Cola, Zipcar, STA Travel, D.C. Snacks and PNC Bank.

“We definitely raised the bar for PB in terms of marketing Fall Fest,” Querido said.

Welcome Week also included the annual Target Run, where the Residence Hall Association sponsored shuttle buses from GW to a Target store on Wednesday night.

Returning for a second year was Club G22, an event where the Smith Center was decked out with neon lighting, a local disc jockey and a red carpet leading into the event. Club G22 was scaled back from last year’s event, which included limousines roaming the campus to pick up students to bring to the event.

Hundreds of students attended the second annual “Night in the Marvin Center” Tuesday night for the largest student organization fair of the year.

A flood of students were greeted by representatives from 90 student organizations, with 65 groups showcasing their fourth floor offices in the Marvin Center.

“The event is a great chance for students, new and old, to come together and meet each other, while learning about opportunities to get involved with the University,” said Charlie Leizear, senior chairman of the Marvin Center Governing Board.

Study abroad representatives, included in the event for the first time, provided a sampling of international food from eight regional destinations and attracted a large crowd with live music.

-Brandon Butler and Elizabeth Wozobski contributed to this report.