Howl attracts all kinds
Lord Voldemort, Strawberry Shortcake and Dwight Schrute were just a few of the thousands of characters who attended USU’s annual Halloween party, the Howl, held at the Taggart Student Center and Fieldhouse Saturday.
A long-standing USU tradition, the Howl always gets a great turnout, averaging between 4 and 5 thousand people each year, said Megan Smith, ASUSU activities director.
“Every year is a little bit different,” Smith said.
Each activities director has their own ideas, she said, and gets to decide what activities and changes will be taking place.
This year, one of the changes was the entrance, from the TSC to the Fieldhouse, “so people don’t have to wait out in the cold,” Smith said.
Planning for the Howl started the second week of school, Smith said, and the setup on Saturday lasted seven hours.
Activities at the Howl this year included bands in the Fieldhouse, a DJ in the Hub, a hypnotist in the Ballroom, root beer in the Juniper Lounge and a photographer in the Walnut Room, who would take pictures and put them on a Web site, Smith said.
There were three different hypnotist shows throughout the night, and around 20 students were selected from the audience in each show to participate. Some of the activities they performed while hypnotized included dancing, rowing a boat to a nudist colony and riding a roller coaster.
One of the hypnotist participants was freshman David Grange, who came to the Howl as Robin Hood.
“The hypnotist was pretty fun,” Grange said. “I hope I didn’t make too big of a fool of myself.”
Hundreds of party-goers also made their way down to the Hub to dance to hip-hop music.
“I really liked the hip-hop room,” said Sarah Taylor, sophomore majoring in art history, “but it was so crowded and it got too hot too fast.”
The proof of the heat was on the completely fogged windows of the stairwell leading down to the Hub.
At the end of the night, an iPod was given away in a costume contest. The three finalists, chosen by Smith, were Captain Jack Sparrow, Warren Jeffs (accompanied by his four wives) and a tree with a cardboard sign that read ‘Hug a Tree.’ Warren Jeffs and Jack Sparrow were narrowed down by the audience to be the final two. A rock, paper, scissors challenge between them determined Jack Sparrow to be the winner.
Amy Shafer, sophomore majoring in English literature, who was attending the Howl for the first time, said “I think the Howl is fun. It’s exciting, and it’s cool to see people’s costumes when they are creative.”
Saturday’s Howl was attended by Dwight Schrute, Elmo, Cookie Monster and Lord Voldemort to name a few. The Howl is attended by 4 and 5 thousand on average every year. (Cameron Peterson)