Fall Fest draws 1,200 students

For free food, free games and Holy Fuck, nearly 1,200 students came to Fall Fest.

The annual event hosted by the Social Planning and Events Committee was held Saturday night. A carnival was held in the Hall of Flags due to inclement weather, but the Holy Fuck concert remained outdoors in the original location on College Green.

The first floor of Houston Hall provided free food from Tacos Don Memo, Magic Carpet and Call Me Cupcake. Students were also given the chance to play games and take free photo booth pictures with faux mustaches and hats.

Downstairs in the Hall of Flags were student groups ranging from the Quaker Girls to SEAS Green. Engineering junior Zach Shurden, one of the co-directors of SEAS Green, said his mission at Fall Fest was “to first get the word out about SEAS Green, a new club this year, and second to raise money for the club via cupcakes.”

As for the move indoors, SPEC President and College senior Shana Rusonis said, “I feel it was a safe decision to do Fall Fest indoors.” Despite the change of location, Rusonis was “really glad that the student groups and performers were so flexible.” She added, “We’re really pleased with the turnout.”

Student bands provided the entertainment for the carnival, playing under an arch of balloons. Among the bands was the Red Giants. Band member and College senior Alex Friedlander said, “It was a bummer we couldn’t play outside, but people still came so it was pretty cool.” Fellow band member and College senior Alex Utay added, “We were hoping for the outside big College Green stage, but Hall of Flags is pretty cool too.”

College sophomore Jesse Franklin said the event brought a “better sense of community between my fellow classmates and myself.” He added that last year he “had more open space to walk around and speak with a lot of the student groups.” However, this year, “it was worth it. Especially, I like the choice of the restaurants.”

An hour after the carnival, students gathered on College Green to view the concert. DJ Sega appeared to be a real crowd pleaser playing popular songs, including a mash-up of a Taylor Swift song and Kanye West’s VMA interruption of her. The electronica band from Canada, Holy Fuck, followed.

Despite feeling iffy about the band at first, Engineering sophomore Sarah Martezian said, “I thought they were really interesting. I never heard anything like it.”

As for the concert’s turnout, Rusonis said, “I think we were up against some challenging factors.” Those factors included a football game and the POPPED! Music Festival held at Temple University’s arena that ran at concurrent times. She added, “We feel given the factors, the attendance was as promising as we could expect,” and that “[SPEC] did feel like the concert went well.”

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