I'm going to admit something to you, and I hope to keep it just between the 2,800 of us. I never liked Halloween. I found it tacky and time consuming and commercialized, and not even in the fun way like Christmas is.
But then I came to college, and my Halloween was no longer a night of handing out candy to people my own age, but rather it consisted of a khalasar of drunken students parading as sexy inanimate objects and childhood cartoons that turns Chapel Hill into a police state for four hours.
I've never looked back. I love the holidays.
— Danny
QUICK HITS
- Ellis Dyson and the Shambles will perform 1920s-inspired music at their third annual Halloween show. I can't think of anything scarier than prohibition on Halloween, so A+, Ellis.
- There are more than 2,000 total spots in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. Now, in 2015, the cemetery has no available plots left. Much like ABC Family.
- Officials have been finding litter and candle wax at Forest Theatre, causing concern about potential damage to the stonework. Personally I'm more concerned with whatever cult practices people were using that many candles for.
- We asked people what makes a great Halloween costume, and the results are in: creativity, warmth, allusions to childhood and obscure, counterculture references. All of which I'm certain are popular Tumblr themes.
IN TRADITIONS
Franklin Street on Halloween hasn't always been a heck show. Much like everything wholesome that our generation has ruined, Halloween in Chapel Hill was once, apparently, a family event. Parents would dress up; stores sold disposable cameras. And then students decided to turn it into a raging, horrible, real-life Zac Efron movie that requires 200 to 700 safety personnel to manage.
IN INTERACTIVES
If you really want to be scared, let's talk about Chapel Hill parking. We made an interactive map that'll tell you all you need to know about when and where to move your car in preparation for Halloween on Franklin. Check out Saturday's detours, alternative bus routes and guest parking.
IN CULT-FOLLOWING NEWS
I bet you think "Rocky Horror Picture Show" couldn't be made any campier than it already is. You're wrong. This Halloween, Pauper Players will team up with the ArtsCenter in Carrboro to live perform "Rocky Horror" alongside a screening of the movie. We're told the actors will sing along to every song and use interactive props.
IN CAMPUS UPDATES
An additional package center is opening in Hinton James next year. I know this might seem like a normal, not-spooky story to some of you. But if you think this isn't scary, you've clearly never had to walk to HoJo.
IN THE BLOGS
There was a Twitter contest for pumpkin carving, and we were all over that ish. Thank you, unrelenting University PR powerhouse, for trying your best at being on the festive train — even if you are responsible for the hashtag "Heeloween." I finished this newsletter more than an hour and a half early so I could get a pumpkin at Weaver Street and carve it before the contest was over. So I guess you're doing something right.
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