The sixth annual Hoptoberfest hosted its kick-off event on Monday, with other planned festivities taking place through Friday. The organization planned activities for students, including their yearly Pumpkin Patch, beer tasting and a concert featuring the Plain White T’s.
Hoptoberfest, a student activities group, organizes fall-themed activities, which many students claim give them a break from classes.
Junior Dorothy Hu noted that this was an opportunity to come together with friends and take a break from studying.
“It’s midterm season, so having something like this where everyone can come together and just pick pumpkins for fun really is a great stress relief,” she said.
At the end of the week the student group will host its headliner concert. This year, Student Government Association (SGA) will co-sponsor the event. Although in past years the Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP) was a co-sponsor, Hoptoberfest members requested that SGA provide funding for the event.
On Sept. 18 SGA voted to pass a bill to allocate $1000 to Hoptoberfest because, according to Hoptoberfest members at the SGA meeting, the HOP overspent on this year’s Johns Hopkins Annual Music Festival (JAM) concert in September, during which up-and-coming rapper Aminé performed.
However, in an email to The News-Letter, Jenna Colombo, co-chair of Hoptoberfest, stated that the decision to not have the HOP co-sponsor this event was due to the fact that this would allow more student events to be put on during the school year.
“This year, the decision to not co-sponsor Hoptoberfest’s concert was made in order to let their event shine as their own as well as allow our JAM concert to succeed,” she wrote. “By doing this, it enables both organizations to bring more events to campus for Hopkins students to enjoy.”
Colombo wrote that the agreement between the HOP and Hoptoberfest to not collaborate for this week’s festivities was arranged before the HOP paid for JAM, and the HOP did not go over their budget.
Hoptoberfest held the kick-off event at the Mattin Center at 7 p.m. and had food vendors, music and a performance involving fire by the Entertainers Club. Several other student clubs attended the event, including the Chinese Students Association and the Taiwanese American Students Association.
Students who attended the event said they were impressed by the live show, including sophomore Ben Straus. He noted that the event was highly entertaining, and he was eager to get a free Hoptoberfest shirt.
“The event is fire, because there’s fire!” Straus said.
On Tuesday, Hoptoberfest hosted a free pumpkin patch on the Beach and also played music while serving pie. Students were able to take miniature pumpkins from the lawn, which senior Austin Petronack enjoyed.
“I’m here because I want a pumpkin to deck out my apartment. I go to Hoptoberfest every year because you gotta get pumpkins,” he said.
Freshman Olivia Anderson expressed that she really appreciated the activities planned by Hoptoberfest each year.
“I really like how many activities there are and the free stuff too. I knew there would be fun activities once I came to college, and I like how creative they’ve been with everything,” she said.
Like Anderson, Hu said that she always has a good time at Hoptoberfest, and it is a fun tradition for the University.
“I hope they keep doing Hoptoberfest every year because it’s always something I look forward to in the fall,” she said.
Rudy Malcom contributed to reporting for this article.
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