On October 29th, 2015, I attended the highly anticipated “Lolla No Booza” event in the Campus Center. Lolla No Booza is one of the most frequently talked-about events at Stockton (at least, that’s what my brief time here has led me to believe.) It’s essentially a large party that promotes abstinence from drugs and alcohol on Halloween night, which is regularly considered a night where many teenage and college students drink heavily. Hosted in the Campus Center event room, I rounded up a group of friends and left to arrive at 8 PM, about an hour after the event started at 7 PM.
The theme of the event was “Freak Show,” and the attractions outside the Event Hall really showed that. There were jugglers, people on unicycles, jugglers on unicycles, clowns, and so much more. Clubs were also tabled outside promoting their messages, handing out candy, and setting up small games. After acquiring a few lollipops and Tootsie Rolls, my friends and I got our hands stamped and entered the Campus Center.
The first thing one notices is the sound. It was ridiculously loud in the event hall, with a large dance floor in the middle. There is definitely a market for loud music and dancing to strobe lights in the dark, but I am not part of that market. There were refreshments on our immediate right, with pizza, chips, lemonade, and water, typical of a Stockton event. Even inside the event room, there were some games around to play, but for no prizes or anything similar. Around the dance floor on the opposite side of the event hall was vaguely the same thing. My friends and I got separated a few hundred times, naturally, and eventually regrouped on the other side of the hall. Many of them wanted to stay for a long time and dance and play games and do things like that, but my one friend and I weren’t so keen on doing so. We decided to enjoy some games, grab some refreshments, and leave. One game in particular we played for a bit was Angry Birds, in which I shot a ball from a large slingshot at a tower of blocks in hopes of knocking down the pig plush on top of it. After failing miserably for a good twenty minutes, we decided it was too loud for us, grabbed our drinks, pizza, and gift bags, and left.
The gift bags came with a number of coupons, cups, discounts, and other cool stuff that I didn’t particularly expect it to have. It was a nice surprise to end the night with. As my friend and I left the event, I came to the conclusion that Lolla No Booza is definitely a great event for many people to have a great time with their friends. I, however, am not one of those people.