The College of Design’s Halloween bash this year was loud enough to break a few windows.
The annual event, hosted on campus at the Pit, featured the Roaring 20’s as its theme and welcomed more than 400 attendees dressed in Gatsby-esque attire. Christin King, a sophomore in design studies and design council president, said police approached the group halfway through the night with complaints of broken windows.
“There were reports of windows being cracked in Syme [Residence Hall] because that’s how intense the sound was,” King said. “Our sound guy only had his equipment up to about 50 or 75 percent, and he was getting text messages from Bragaw [Residence Hall] about noise complaints.”
King said she didn’t complain, though, because it meant she and the event planners were doing their jobs right.
“Our sound guy was pretty happy about that too,” King said.
This year’s Halloween party, called the “Simply Smashing Bash,” featured costumes ranging from Mr. Peanut to a group of six students dressed as characters from Mario Kart. Attendees competed in single- and group-sized costume contests. The crowd voted on the winners, which were two students dressed in ‘20s attire with dinosaur heads known as “The Roaring 20’s.”
“The college of design in general gets really excited about the event because students make their own costumes,” King said. “The costumes alone make up half of the event and decorations because they are just such an interesting sight to look at.”
King said that each year, the event planning committee tries to top the previous Halloween party. To accomplish this, King said she and design event coordinator Allison Menius, a junior in environmental design, started planning in the summer.
“We knew that it had to be really awesome, and it had to be really great,” King said. “One of the things we really encourage in the college of design is fostering community. We really wanted the event that got everybody out of their studios and was a reflection of creativity in the College of Design.”
Dash, a Raleigh-based band, served as the disc jockeys for the first half of the night. David Garcia, Dash’s lead singer and song writer, said he had fun at the event.
“I really didn’t know what to expect,” said Garcia, a senior in biochemistry at N.C. State. “I’d never been before, but it was a really great event.”
King said many people agreed with Garcia, including the fire marshal, police officers and N.C. State administration.
“They all said that in all of their years, this was the most well run and well executed event,” King said.
Aside from the costumes, a big hit of the night was the sound system. Hayes Twisdale, a sophomore in business administration, brought equipment from his company, Production Edge. King said the sound system was enough to power two IMAX theaters.
“It was an incredible sound system,” Garcia said. “It was really good quality sound.”
King said many people also came out to see Dash perform, even though members were only DJing for the night.
“We were just so thankful to have them,” King said. “They are definitely a quickly fast growing band and brought a lot of people out who weren’t from the College of Design.”
