The stomping and shouting of hundreds of costumed students echoed through the gymnasium as Halloween music blared from the speakers, marking the start of this year’s Fall Festival on Friday, Oct. 31.

The festival, organized by the Student Government Association (SGA) and each grade level’s class council, is an annual tradition held during lunch on Halloween.. This year’s event consisted of an informal opening dance performance organized by the dance department, games, student and teacher costume contests, and, for the first time, a performance by the cheerleading team.

“Fall Festival is so important for students because it lifts our spirits during the second quarter,” digital arts and photography sophomore Clover Orezzoli said. “It’s really fun, healthy competition that encourages school spirit and brings us together as a student body.”

The festival is traditionally led by the two SGA Co-Presidents, who this year are vocal senior Beau McDowell and communications senior Gavin Murray. However, McDowell was unable to attend this year, leaving SGA Co-Vice President and communications senior Ava Fiala to fill in alongside Murray. The pair explained the rules of each game and interacted directly with each student section throughout the festival.

“Having to fill in for Beau at the last minute was super stressful,” Fiala said. “Writing the script, getting everything organized, revising the script with Gavin, meeting with the other SGA members, and making sure that everything ran smoothly turned out to be a lot. But we have an amazing team, so everything turned out just fine.”

SGA spent weeks gathering the materials for the event, including streamers and toilet paper, and selecting and organizing the games for the festival. Each class council was responsible for gathering the students for each game, decorating student sections, and for painting their grade level’s banner.

To select students to participate in the festival’s five games, each class council posted a sign-up Google Form on Google Classroom. While sophomores, juniors, and seniors had just enough students sign up to participate, over 50 freshmen completed the festival Google Form this year. Theatre freshman Elijah Roger, who played in the Mummy Wrap game, attributes this distinction in volunteers to many freshmen wanting to take part in the festivities.

“Freshmen aren’t as self-conscious and mature as the upperclassmen,” Roger said. “We just want to have fun and we don’t care about what other people think about us.”

Class banners were displayed above each student section in the gym. The freshmen banner was inspired by the “Fantastic Four” film, the sophomore banner was inspired by the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle” film franchise, the junior banner was inspired by “The Incredibles” film franchise, and the senior banner was inspired by the “Kung Fu Panda” film franchise. Visual arts sophomore Aliyah Bassett helped paint the sophomore banner.

“Seeing our banner in all of its glory in the gym felt incredible,” Bassett said. “I helped paint the Fall Festival freshmen banner last year, so this year I had a better idea of what I was doing. We were able to get the whole thing done in only a few days.”

One new game was added to the festival this year: the Hat Game. The goal was for participants to knock the hats off of students from other grade levels without stepping out of bounds or engaging in physical contact. SGA made this addition after seeing other schools play the game at their pep rallies.

“We are always looking for ways to make every year’s festival different from the year before,” Fiala said. “I’m not sure if the Hat Game is going to be returning to the Fall Festival next year.”

Additionally, the cheer team performed at Fall Festival following the final game and before the costume contest upon their request to be featured amongst the event’s other activities. After being approved to perform, the team began practicing after school to choreograph and sharpen their routine. 

“The cheerleaders performing was a big controversy because the fall festival takes place in such a short amount of time,” Fiala said. “We really have a hard time trying to fit everything in, but we made room because the cheer team really wanted to perform.”

Games

Pie Eating Contest

The opening game was the Pie Eating Contest, where one student and one teacher representing each grade level raced to eat two pies before the other teams. The grade level whose teacher and student finished their pie first was crowned the winner. The assigned teachers were science teacher Stephen Anand for the freshmen, social studies teacher Ross Vening for the sophomores, French teacher Thomas Ruth for the juniors, and digital arts and photography teacher Nicolas Angulo for the seniors. 

Results:

1. Freshmen
2. Juniors
3. Seniors
4. Sophomores

The Mummy Wrap

Following the Pie Eating Contest was the Mummy Wrap, featuring teams of four students and one faculty member representing each grade level. The students were instructed to wrap their assigned faculty member with as much toilet paper as possible in two minutes to mimic a mummy. The assigned faculty members were English teacher Valerie Hernandez for the freshmen, assistant principal Drew Dawson for the sophomores, math teacher Crystal Varnadore for the juniors, and math teacher Timothy Freeman for the seniors. 

Results:

1. Sophomores 
2. Juniors
3. Seniors
4. Freshmen

The Hat Game:

The second-to-last game was the Hat Game. Two students from each grade level were directed to knock off the hats being worn by the other teams. This game featured one brief round. 

Results:

1. Seniors
2. Juniors

Third and fourth place were not stated.

Queen’s Request (Finney’s Request)

The final game was the Queen’s Request, where assistant principal Teneisha Finney served as “queen.” At the beginning of each round, Mrs. Finney requested an item, most commonly a part of a Halloween costume, from the student sections. Upon Mrs. Finney’s request for an item, two students from each grade level had to go to their grade level’s section, find a student wearing or holding that item, retrieve it, and place it in a box located by Mrs. Finney before running to sit down by their assigned SGA representative. The last player to return each round with the requested item was eliminated.

Results:

1. Seniors
2. Juniors
3. Sophomores
4. Freshmen

Costume Contest

After all four games and the cheer team’s performance, the costume contest concluded the festival. One student from each grade level was nominated, and the best costume was determined by which student received the loudest cheer from their student section. A teacher costume contest was also held, where the departments dressed up in group costumes. The Math department, whose teachers dressed up as characters from the film “KPop Demon Hunters,” won the contest after receiving the most cheers from student sections.

Results:

1. Sophomores – Visual arts sophomore Jonny Cunjak
2. Seniors – Visual arts senior Corina Paolini

Third and fourth place were not stated.

Overall Result

1. Seniors
2. Juniors
3. Sophomores
4. Freshmen

Conclusion

As the cheers faded and students returned to the cafeteria for lunch, SGA members began to pack away the remaining materials. Though each grade level left with different results, the event marked the end of another Halloween celebration featuring costumes, candy, and competition. According to Fiala, the festival once again achieved its purpose, which she described as bringing the Dreyfoos community together to celebrate school spirit and Halloween.

“When everyone left, all of the SGA members, I kid you not, just laid down on the floor of the gym,” Fiala said. “We just laid there staring at the ceiling. Lying there together to symbolize that we’re finally done with all the stress and preparation was so nice and so necessary.”

Gallery • 7 Photos

Sabiha Prova

Leading the line during the cheer dance, digital arts and photography senior Melanie Schmidt smiles while tipping her cowboy hat.