Perhaps it is the red and pink. Perhaps it is the hint of spring in the air. Whatever it may be, the time of year has come when UCSB turns its mind to the vagina.

The First Annual Vagina Festival will be held at the Arbor today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is organized by the Women’s Ensemble Theater Troupe, better known as W.E.T.T., who also perform “The Vagina Monologues.” The festival is in honor of V-Day, a worldwide campaign held every Valentine’s Day to discuss violence against girls and women.

The festival will include games such as “Pin the Hand on the Clit,” “Guess the Sex Toy,” “The Vagina-Toss” and a “Wheel of Fortune” consisting of rape statistics and vagina trivia. There will also be a benefit raffle in which participants can win literature on sexual awareness, free haircuts, professional massages, sex toys and a lengthy book on the origins of the word “clit.”

“This is just as much about entertainment as it is about education,” said Mimmi Juslin, senior French and English major and president of W.E.T.T. “Even if people don’t like what we’re doing, we’ll get them talking about it.”

Over 40 groups will have information tables at the festival, including Men Against Rape, Students For a Free Tibet, Planned Parenthood, the Isla Vista Teen Center and Associated Students Women’s Commission. There will also be dance performances by the Jitterbug Club and the Skyline Dancers.

“The point is to create solidarity between groups that share similar goals,” Juslin said. “We’re just giving them a chance to advertise and raise awareness of their causes.”

V-Day began in 1998 as a side-project to a play called “The Vagina Monologues,” by Eve Ensler. Ensler wants Valentine’s Day to be known as V-Day until all violence against women stops. When the violence stops, V-Day would then become Victory Over Violence Day.

Worldwide V-Day events have raised over $14 million in the last five years, all of which is distributed to various charities dedicated to stopping violence against women.

For more information about V-Day, visit the website at www.vday.org.