With music being heard all the way from Hess Hall, the Student Union plaza Haunted Campus event, hosted by the Campus Events Board (CEB), brought Halloween to campus a week early.
Upon entering the event, students could get a free dark green Haunted Campus t-shirt and a virtual reality haunted house and food voucher. Once inside, there was free hot chocolate, food trucks, tarot card reading, a photo booth and a pumpkin painting station.
The event started at 7 p.m. with a small crowd, but by 8 p.m. the plaza was packed.
Under a tent in a darkly lit corner was tarot card reading. After waiting in a line stretching all the way across the plaza, students could ask a question and receive answers through tarot cards.
Live music serenaded the crowd, with original spooky songs by East Tennessee bands Vagabond Brew and Atlas End.
“The live music from the locals was the best part,” freshman Michael Seifried said.
Atlas End, who performed during the second half, had students jumping up and down and a conga line started. At the end of Atlas End’s performance, students yelled for an encore, which surprised Atlas End. But they did not waver and performed one last song.
While walking off the stage, the band was met by a group of students asking where they perform, and how they can get their music.
The showstopper, however, was the costumes. Witches, witch doctors, knights in shining armor, pumpkins, anime characters, Ahsoka Tano, a dinosaur, Jokers, the Scarlet Witch and matching dogs could be found every which way.
Sophomore Hannah Sayne heard about this event weeks ago, and started planning with her friends then, to form a pumpkin patch costume. They then added a friend’s dog to the mix, Auggie.
“I’ve loved it, it’s been so much fun! From the moment we walked in, we found something to do,” Sayne said. “Especially with the dog, there’s lots to do.”
Auggie and other dogs could be seen running around the grass and enjoying lots of admiration from the crowd.
Sophomores Emily Tucker and Lorelei Norman dressed up as Draculaura from Monster High and Death the Kid from Soul Eater.
“I’m having so much fun so far, I saw two dogs and I got very excited about that,” Tucker said.
During breaks between events, students could enjoy tacos or wings from the jam-packed food truck area, featuring CJ’s Tacos and Wings on the Pig. Students could then sit down with their food in the dinning location, right next to pumpkin painting.
By 9:30 p.m. the event was over and the stage shut down. However, tarot card reading did not end until later, when every student who wanted a reading got one.
Overall, most students stayed until the last possible minute, when the final speaker was unplugged, and CEB staff handed out Red Bulls and bid happy students goodbye.
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