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March 28, 2024

Hopkins celebrates fifth annual Hoptoberfest

By KAREN WANG | October 12, 2017

A3_hoptoberfest

COURTESY OF ANEEKA RATNAYAKE Free giveaways at Hoptoberfest include pumpkins, shirts and food.

The fifth annual Hoptoberfest kicked off on Monday and is scheduled to last through this Friday. Hosted by the Hoptoberfest student organization, it was originally established to celebrate fall and help students relieve stress.

The festivities began with the Kick-Off in Mattin Center courtyard and will culminate with a concert on the Beach. Other events included the Pumpkin Patch, where students could customize their own pumpkins, and a screening of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Sophomore Jeffrey Wang, secretary of Hoptoberfest, stated that increasing attendance and participation at the events remains a priority.

“Our most popular event is the concert, but we’re trying to make each of our individual events garner more popularity,” Wang said. “Trying to get new members and ensuring that people have a lot of fun is the biggest goal.”

This year, some changes included modifying the logo of Hoptoberfest, having students design mugs instead of phone cases and recruiting a more well-known performer, the band Cheat Codes, for the concert through a co-sponsorship with the Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP).

Juniors Grace Duan and Ting Fang manned a table for the Chinese Students Association (CSA) to sell food at the Kick-Off. Duan was disappointed that students weren’t willing to attend the entire event.

“A lot of people come at the beginning and get the sparklers and T-shirts, and then there’s no incentive for them to stay,” Duan said. “I don’t know what Hoptoberfest is doing to encourage people to stay.”

Fang added that T-shirt distribution presented difficulties for clubs fundraising at the Kick-Off.

“Right now there’s nothing we can do,” Fang said. “We had to go to the line to sell our crepes.”

Senior Stephanie Cai also found T-shirt distribution disorganized.

“The highlight of Hoptoberfest is people getting a shirt,” she said. “They can do a better job of distributing them out at different times.”

Wang explained that the club was addressing the issue. This year, Hoptoberfest organizers set up barricades to make lines for T-shirts more orderly.

“Hopefully that’ll make it a lot better, because obviously each year it’s kind of a hassle,” Wang said.

Seniors Maggie Donahue and Lily Kairis reflected on how Hoptoberfest has changed since their freshman year. Donahue said that she has become more appreciative of the event.

“I have enjoyed it increasingly more each year,” Donahue said. “There are more events now than there used to be, or maybe I’m just more aware of them.”

Kairis said she pays more attention to Hoptoberfest than in past years.

“Freshman year it just seemed like this magical thing out of nowhere,” she said.

Wang stated that future Hoptoberfest events may be modeled after this year’s.

“We’ll keep trying to cater to more of this type of style,” Wang said. “It really depends on how well things run.”


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