Raymond Waldron
Contributing Writer
Tweeting drunk and taking artistic pictures of pumpkins proved to be among the more popular activities this weekend at the annual Keene Pumpkinfest.
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were the choice activities for Keene State students this past weekend. People began to send tweets about Pumpkinfest in Keene as early as two weeks ago and on Friday night that number of hit over 400. The number skyrocketed Saturday night during the actual event to double the previous night.
The overall response from students was that this was a wild weekend. Tweets like “Did a bomb go off in Keene? Oh wait no that was just #PUMPKINFEST” from @NickGWood11 were rampant over the weekend. “Keene State was def wild last night #pumpkinfest” tweets @NahG43. Tweets also got more revealing as the event wound down. @shelbydawn1989 tweeted Sunday morning “alcohol got the best of me yesterday. #pumpkinfest #wasted #keene #crazy.”
The tweets provided live updates as to just how wild the weekend was. As @TaraSousa tweeted last night at 2 a.m., “Crazy s*** happens at Keene #pumpkinFest”
Students also celebrated the amount of pumpkins that were on display downtown. The pumpkin display downtown was the focal point of several pictures on the photo editing site Instagram. The majority of the pictures were of the massive scaffolding downtown that held up the pumpkin display.
The number of pictures on Instagram that had the “Pumpkinfest” tag attached to them hit a whopping 3,687 photos over the weekend. Instagram photos can be attached to Tweets, which makes them easier to distribute.
Facebook played a key role in spreading the word of Pumpkinfest. The most prominent Facebook page utilized over the weekend is a page called “Help! Don’t ever cancel the Keene Pumpkinfest.” This group has 5,850 people who like it, and has 679 people who are actively discussing things about the event. This specific Facebook page became a hub of the weekend’s activities, as it focused less on the student partying and more on town events.
Facebook held four separate pages for the Pumpkinfest, including the “Help! Don’t ever cancel the keene Pumpkinfest” page. The range of pages went from simple pages describing Pumpkinfest, all the way to a studend group made to advertise a student-made Pumpkinfest t-shirt. One page allowed users to record their location on Facebook, and check-in at Pumpkinfest.
It appears social media played an important role in this year’s Pumpkinfest. “They [the students] were all just having fun…everyone had their friends up, and wanted connect with each other via Twitter,” said KSC Junior Spenser Schwartzmiller as to why so many students utilize social media over the weekend. “Everyone was drunk and under the influence of something.”
Raymond Waldron can be contacted at
rwaldron@ksc.keene.edu.