Event coverage #2

Despite the many allures, college campuses can be a stressful place, especially around midterm season. Examining the fall semester schedule though, you realize midterms largely coincide with an event that many students look forward to all year long, Halloween! Halloween is one of the few concepts capable of momentarily distracting a large population of students from their stresses, allowing them to relish the moment and enjoy their outlet. Walking into the Hadley village apartment complex lounge in UB last week was like walking into a war zone, there was constant distress and infighting and an overall unpleasant experience. Walking into the very same lounge right after the start of the Hadley village Halloween party, it was clear there was a noticeable difference in the atmosphere. 

“Blood” filled the walls, corpses littered the floors, lights flashed as if about to burst, and cackles flooded the room, yet all you could hear was the sound of glee and comfort. Sasha, a UB senior dressed as a bunny, said she looks forward to Halloween all year because it allows her to take a break from her life stresses. She added it’s always nice to be able to experience the lack of stress in a normally stressful environment.

Kayla, one of the heads of the event, stated this was very important for her because she knew how much stress everyone had been going through lately and just wanted to provide people with some fun. She mentioned wanting to have this event be more genuine than other UB events in the past, with a focus on student enjoyment rather than playing it safe. It was a big risk in her eyes to try and make the scene as realistic as she did, but in the long run she believes she made the right decision and it is part of the reason the event was so successful. Mark, who is a UB junior dressed as a Ken, says he gets a little queasy around blood and strobe lighting, but says the notice within the email preparing him for it allowed him to conceptualize it before coming and know what he was in for. This also meant that anyone who read the email and had a serious fear of any of those things could clearly avoid all together, rather than misleading people and than going for a scare tactic later on, like many Halloween establishments have been known to do. The time and energy put in to make the setup was a big reason people seemed to be pleasantly surprised by the outcome, UB campus living has a history of lackluster events sadly, but it was clear they did what they could to ensure that was not the case this time around. The event even ended up being extended by more than 30 minutes due to higher attendance than expected, something that Kayla said helped make her efforts helping to create the event all worth it in the end. Anthony, another attendee of the event and a UB senior noted the event really made him feel like he was part of a community in a way he often forgets. He stated most of the time on campus it feels like although students may attend the same university, they are all leading separate non connected lives, there is little community feel. A festive event like this can help to provide a feeling of connectivity and community that you would likely want prior to attending a university. The timing was also impeccable, it gave students enough time to still enjoy the remainder of their nights while not being too early to lose the effect of a Halloween event!