To celebrate Halloween, Hurricane Productions (HP) brought the spooky, sweet spirit to campus with its first annual “All about the Boo,” a week of live music, scary movies and pumpkin painting.
HP is a constant presence on campus, but the organization stepped it up for the holiday. Taking place the week leading up to Halloween, they put on several events and themed their usual ones to fit Halloween. Typical trivia night became “Spooky Trivia Tuesday” and Patio Jams turned into “Trick-or-Tunes”. They added two showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Halloweentown” Canes Night Live on Friday night and hosted the Rat Spooktacular.
Junior media management and advertising major Sarah Hutchison is the chair of The Rathskeller Advisory Board and worked hard, alongside HP’s six other event chairs, to bring “All about the Boo” to life.
“We love the Halloween spirit and we really wanted to bring some great Halloween-themed events on our campus,” Hutchison said.
Hutchison ensured there would be a festive feeling to the center of campus by organizing all of The Rat events including the Rat Spooktacular that featured pumpkin painting, a tee-shirt giveaway and cookies as well as working with Patio Jams to put on Trick-or-Tunes with a live band performing Halloween classics and a tote bag giveaway for students to trick or treat with.
Music filled the university all week with performances by Saadin Dassum, DUCK and a disc jockey for DJ Thursdays to get students excited for Halloweekend. Later in the night, the HP Cinematic Arts Commision screened “A Quiet Place Part II” with a costume contest.
“HP definitely has a really big impact on this campus in terms of event planning and putting on events for all students to enjoy,” Hutchison said.
Their spirit spread to the theatre and Shalala Student Center with Canes Night Live on Friday and the annual showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Rocky Horror, a late night Halloween favorite that includes crowd interaction, was put on by the CaneStage Theatre Company, overseen by sophomore Niloy Bhattacharyya.
Freshman Kamryn Elder, a biochemistry major, attended the show, her first time ever seeing it.
“It was cool how there was crowd interaction, I didn’t know that was going to be a thing. We got to blow bubbles and snap our gloves and wear party hats,” Elder said. “I think it was a good show and it was funny. They did a good job entertaining.”
Canes Night Live transformed the Shalala Student Center into “Halloweentown” from the 1998 Disney Channel movie. In addition to a showing of the movie, there was slime-making and a 360 photo booth to capture students’ costumes from all angles.
“I think they did a really good job. There’s a lot of stuff going on,” Elder said.
Costumes and dressing up are Hutchison’s favorite Halloween tradition, but it was the people of HP that made this week special for her.
“My favorite part has definitely been working with all the awesome people and committee members within HP,” Hutchinson said. “Our general body is just so amazing and my committee in particular are so hardworking and just really amazing. I’m so lucky to work with the team that I work with.”