Concessions Stands

Concession n. 1. the act of conceding or yielding, as a right or privilege , or as a point or fact in an argument. 2. the thing or point yielded. 3. something conceded by a government or a controlling authority, as a grant of land, a privilege, or a franchise.

When we first came to CAJ we were confronted with a whole swag of new vocabulary. Freshman, Sophomore, Varsity, Brain Bowl, Agenda (when referring to a homework notebook), etc.

Concessions Stand or "Concessions" for short was another. It seems a strange name for a place to buy food and snacks at events, but Wikipedia has just enlightened me. They say:

A concession stand (American English), snack kiosk or snack bar (British English, Irish English) is the term used to refer to a place where patrons can purchase snacks or food at a cinema, fair, stadium, or other entertainment venue. Some events or venues contract out the right to sell food to third parties. Those contracts are often referred to as a concession — hence the name for a stand where food is sold. Usually prices for goods at concession stands are greater than elsewhere for the convenience of being close to an attraction.

At wordorigins.org someone writes:

At many venues, the owner grants concessions to individual vendors allowing them to sell refreshments and other articles on the premises. Hence the term. 

This is the CAJ Concessions Stand. It is run by
seniors to raise funds for their Senior Ministry
Trip to Thailand in March. They usually run it at
sporting events, but also various cultural events
too. There is a lot of snack/junk food (some of
which is American and not widely available in Japan).
But they also serve basic main meals like hot dogs,
Japanese curry rice, chilli dogs, etc.

Concessions happens in the gym lobby if the sports are
gym-based sports. That's good when we're talking winter
sports, it's often below 5 C at night.
This was not a crowded night, but we enjoy going down to
school on some of these nights, eating their food for dinner, thereby
supporting the seniors in their fundraising, and also catching
some of the games. Though we usually have to leave before
the end in order to get kids in bed and homework completed.

We relied on other schools' Concession Stands a bit at Wrestling events, we usually take a swag of food with us, including sandwiches, but sometimes something hot is nice.

Another small piece of American culture and language for you!