The Night Owl Café saw the return of karaoke, but with a Halloweekend twist. The NOC was brimming with costumed singers on Saturday, Oct. 28.
Director of Student Involvement Jessica Gagne Cloutier explained the beginning of karaoke at the NOC. “Karaoke in the NOC is something we started last year with our current team leader… [it] was kind of a pet project of hers that’s gone over pretty well,” she said.
“Usually [we have] somewhere between 40 and 50 people coming each time. So this is just really an extension of that on a different day of the week than we normally do karaoke. Usually Fridays [but] we bumped it to Saturday, so it would fit into the Halloween schedule… anybody can come and sing, they don’t have to be in a costume. But folks who do want to participate in a costume contest will be able to sign up for that…The audience will vote and there are cash prizes. $100 cash prize for the first place winner, $50 for second and third.”
This was the first time student involvement has done costume karaoke. Gagne Cloutier spoke on the possible continuation of it. “I think it depends on how it goes…we always have activities around Halloween that we… brand as ‘Halloweekend’. This year is a little weird… because Halloween falls on a Tuesday… we’re trying to have events here and there, [Friday] through Tuesday… We have karaoke scheduled multiple times throughout the rest of the year. So folks can look forward to that. But if they really like costume karaoke, they should let us know.”
This year, Keene saw a drastic increase in first-year students. Gagne Cloutier described how student involvement will be affected. “The last few years… Halloweekend was super busy, especially on Halloween. Last year, Halloween was pretty quiet. The events leading up to it were definitely busier. So I don’t think we have any expectations for what we’ll see… I think we’ll have a good turnout for our trip that’s happening tomorrow. We’re hoping for a good turnout… at Pumpkin Palooza, [that’s] student government. But those two things kind of give us… a nice window into what to expect… but we’re definitely hoping that folks will come out, there are different events every year so we try to keep it varied so that folks don’t get bored by having the same events every single day.”
Cloutier explained what student involvement wants from Halloweekend events. “We always hope that folks connect with other people… whether they’re connecting with groups of friends that they’re coming to an event with or they meet someone new at an event, we hope that that kind of social connection is something that they’re seeing and developing. Maybe they get to try something new, whether that’s jumping on stage and singing karaoke in a costume for the first time or going on a ghost hunt, trying something that maybe they wouldn’t have experienced otherwise, and certainly just having fun.”
Benjamin Martins can be contacted at
bmartins@kscequinox.com
