By Heather Fabritze
Student Life Editor
The Student Events Board hosted their annual Fall Fest celebration in the form of three separate events throughout the day on Wednesday, Nov. 9.
Every year on fall advising day, SEB plans events designed to give Washington College students a break from the stress of their work. Not having classes allows for higher turnout than the average SEB event.
According to SEB Director of Series Events senior Noah Vargas, the three event format differs from iterations of Fall Fest in the past. The celebration usually occurs as a larger festival-like event with booths, games, and experiences for students to enjoy.
Vargas said that the SEB executive board wanted to “try something different,” leading them to brainstorm the idea of a series of events, rather than one large celebration.
Kicking off Fall Fest at 1 p.m. was trivia, which was planned by Vargas and the SEB Series Committee. It featured Kahoot games asking trivia questions about Disney, Marvel, 2000s music, and more.
The top three winners of each round could choose from a Dunkin’, Royals Farms, or Amazon gift card. First place received a $75 gift card, second place won a $50 card, and third place’s card was worth $25.
Senior Avery-Grey Dos Santos attended trivia because advising day freed up their schedule for fun and studying.
“I needed a way basically to get my restlessness out before I could do my homework,” Dos Santos said.
The second event of the day, crafts, was also designed to provide a calming space for stressed students from 4 to 6 p.m.
Planned by Director of Special Events sophomore Natalie Martinaitis, Vargas, and their respective committees, the event’s attendees painted mini canvases or leftover foam pumpkins from Pumpkin Party at their leisure.
Splitting Fall Fest into three parts and the ability to reuse items from past events gave the executive board a larger budget to use for their individual events.
“We had a significant budget so we were able to spend money on gift cards and stuff, which was cool,” Vargas said. “Planning wise, these events don’t require a lot of setup. So it was fairly easy to put together.”
The final event of the day was karaoke, which lasted from 7:30 to 9 p.m. It was planned by Martinaitis and the Special Events Committee.
The turnout for karaoke was steady, with students sticking around to sing songs like “Never Enough” from “The Greatest Showman,” “Ice, Ice, Baby” by Vanilla Ice, and “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” by Taylor Swift.
Sophomore Maria Karavasilis said that coming to watch her friends perform was only part of the reason for her attendance.
“I wanted to de-stress from this cycle of exams,” Karavasilis said. “We’re nearing the end of the semester, so I think a little break with a lot of fun is something that we all needed.”
Fall Fest’s greater goal of allowing students to de-stress is why karaoke was Vargas’ favorite event of the day.
“It was nice to end the night out with a bang,” Vargas said. “It was fun to just see people having a good time. You know, it’s a stressful time for people right now. And it’s good to just see people singing along to their favorite songs.”
SEB will be hosting their next event, bingo, on Friday, Nov. 18, their final event before Thanksgiving break.
Photo by Mia Snyder
Photo Caption: Attendees who wanted to perform wrote their names on a list as the event progressed.