This year’s Halloween holiday celebration in Boone may bring students flashbacks of wearing kid’s costumes and trick-or-treating.
Appalachian State University’s 2014 Family Weekend falls on Halloween weekend.
Students should expect parents to be flocking into town that weekend just in time for one of the most anticipated weekends of the year for college students. Halloween weekend is always a popular one for parties and celebrations, the bars are always slammed and the costumes seem to get better every year.
Many questions have to be surfacing as this weekend approaches. First, the university must be worried about potential issues created by the festivities and whether they could reflect poorly on Boone and Appalachian. Halloween parties are everywhere and everyone wants their share of the holiday fun. Will the town of Boone and the university be taking measures to be stricter that weekend?
Students are sure to be excited to see their parents and siblings, but are hesitant at the idea of them being in town on this weekend in particular. So why did Appalachian choose this day? Most likely it wasn’t on purpose, though some students do speculate it is a strategic move to tone down Halloween weekend.
“Things like that aren’t usually a coincidence, the administration knows what they’re doing,” said Gray Hyland, a sophomore marketing major.
The idea of celebrating Halloween all night and having an early wake up call for Saturday’s football festivities doesn’t seem like an exciting sequence either, despite the game being the focus of Family Weekend.
The most likely reason for Family Weekend being during Halloween is due to the scheduling of Appalachian’s football season.
Appalachian will host Georgia State University on Saturday, the first time ever the Sun Belt Conference foes will face one another.
“I love Halloween and I love tailgating with my family, but the timing of this is going to ruin my want to lay in bed all day Saturday,” Hyland said. “It is a ‘Catch-22’ of sorts for students.”
Of course, students will certainly get good meals, baked goods, groceries and clothes, but students may have to enjoy Halloween a little more tame than they would like to.
Nonetheless, Saturday morning may bring out the inner zombie for students as they host their family, lacking the sleep and freshness they usually would have on the day of a home football contest.
Story: Jack Bonnell, Contributor