Fresh perspectives: A freshman’s Halloweekend at Cornell

For most kids, Halloween means dressing up as your idol, watching classics like Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown endlessly and going door-to-door with your best friends collecting as much candy as you can.

For kids in college, Halloween means going out underdressed and getting absolutely fucked up.

Although we don’t get to partake in trick-or-treating on October 31st, Cornells students get to celebrate Halloween for three nights rather than one in a party-filled, drunken blur known unofficially as Halloweekend.

Like most freshman, I was excited to be at Cornell for what was hyped up to be one of the best weekends of the year.

While earlier in the semester we found ourselves struggling to find a house that would allow freshman inside, now we were given an entirely opposite dilemma of deciding which house we wanted to go to.

Yes, you read that right. Now, we have choices. 

We started off our Halloweekend on Thursday night by heading out to West Campus to check out the houses we heard were throwing fun events. We made the rookie mistake of heading out too late because by the time we arrived at the first house, the party was completely packed and they weren’t letting anyone in.

Pro Tip: If you aren’t sure you’re going to get into a party, try to arrive at the house before 11pm. I’ve witnessed girls who are in a sorority that often mixes with the frat even get turned away at the door.

It doesn’t matter who you are. Parties fill up quickly and door dicks are relentless.

We ended up finding a house that let us in and had a sick night, but that was definitely a minor setback in what was supposed to be the sickest weekend.

On the second night of our Halloweekend, the squad went out yet again. Now that classes for the week were finally over, everyone was going out. West Campus streets were filled with loud, eager kids stumbling over to their respective parties where they would try their very hardest not to get beer spilled on their brand new $40 costumes.

Pro Tip: Halloweekend is three nights, which means you should have three different costumes planned out. If you’re going to repeat a costume, try to avoid people who saw you already on a previous night.

The lines to get into houses were absolutely insane. Door dicks were screaming, cursing and throwing kids off their property who didn’t have a good boy-to-girl ratio. I’d say I waited outside the house for nearly an hour before gaining entry.

The entire house was packed with dancing kids and scantily clad women. Drinking games ensued. This night was even better than the last.

Gotta Catch ‘Em All

Finally, the day had arrived. It was Halloween!

During the day, a few kids and I went down to the Ithaca Commons, which has been completely transformed to look like Diagon Alley from the Harry Potter franchise.

It was no Universal Studios, but it still looked pretty fucking insane.

This was the perfect way to spend Halloween. It was sorta like Applefest, only instead of apple cider vendors there were butterbeer vendors.

Nearly 15,000 people walked the streets of Ithaca dressed up in their costumes eating chocolate frogs and carrying their own personal Marauder’s Maps.

That night, we went out yet again to a Halloween party.

Pro Tip: Halloweekend is a lot of partying. Pace yourself so that you aren’t too worn out by the time its actually Halloween night.

The night was sick. Everyone went out in their best costumes that ranged from hilarious to incredibly sexy to what some have referred to as “a bit much.”

We partied and drank and danced. When it reached 1am, it seemed as if the dance floor was clearing out and people were leaving. As we were getting ready to go, I noticed some people were heading down these narrow stairs so we followed behind to find ANOTHER FUCKING DANCE FLOOR.

We ended up staying out till 3am (or 4am. I don’t know. The whole Daylight Savings thing really messed me up).

Halloweekend was definitely a sick time. An easy way to tell it was a sick time is by waking up early on Sunday to check out all the hungover girls and boys slowly making their way back to their dorms. It was definitely a sight to see.