Trick me twice, shame on me - Christian Schoning

At 12:30 a.m. this past Saturday, a friend and I decided to hit up the Bunker, host of the annual VACA-sponsored Halloween party, featuring DJs from New York and Montreal.  (VACA stands for “Vitality of the Artistic Community Association” in case you were wondering.) As we neared FIC, we saw streams of people coming and going from the Bunker. Passing a group of costumed comrades, we were informed that the Bunker was full. “Oh well,” we thought, “We’ll just wait in line. It can’t be that bad.”

We rounded the corner to find a crowd of students, all decked out in Halloween garb, centered around the entrance door to the Bunker. Every five minutes or so, the glass door would open towards the crowd, and about five people were allowed in by the student-athlete Bunker bouncers manning the entrances and exits that night. The five people who were let in were not nearly enough to shrink the crowd of nearly 50, and thus, each successive opening of the doors created a stronger and stronger push and pull of the crowd straining to get in on the fun.
On about the fifth opening of the door, there was a huge surge forward, one that took all of the strength of the Bunker bouncer to overcome. The resulting push back was so forceful that the girl in front of me fell and was immediately lost amidst the multitude of legs, cattails and octopus tentacles surrounding her. Realizing that she was in real danger of being trampled, I bent down, put one hand under each armpit and stood her up again, noticing that ironically she was dressed up as the Twister game board. Thankfully she was not hurt, but in those few seconds I was really worried for her. She shouldn’t have had to go through this just to get into a party at Middlebury College. Like someone in the crowd commented, “You would think this was the hottest club in New York City or something.”

Current students don’t have to think too far back to remember the last VACA Halloween party, the highly advertised “Baile Terror” dance party featuring a Brazilian DJ. I know personally how that party turned out, as I was inside when the party was shut down prematurely (and I mean before midnight) because of “riots” outside of the main entrance. It was a huge bummer for everyone inside, to say the least. That night the doors were guarded by an outside security company. If my memory serves me correctly, the crowd had become hostile at not being allowed in, the security personnel were overwhelmed, the party was shut down and the Middlebury Police were called. While I cannot say unequivocally that the two situations were the same, seeing as I was not in the crowd last year, I strongly believe that the only reason the same thing didn’t happen this year is because the “security” was made up of Middlebury students and not a security company.
So what’s going on here? The security personnel didn’t do anything wrong; they were only keeping the students from exceeding the maximum capacity level in the respective places. The students were not wrong in wanting to enter a party so hyped and with such cool DJs. The problems stemmed from the simple fact that both venues just couldn’t accommodate enough people. I don’t think I’m alone in wanting to know why VACA couldn’t have moved this year’s party to a larger space. One would have thought, after what happened last year, and the fact that Halloween weekend brings out significantly more students to parties than nearly any other night of the year, that VACA would move their party to a bigger space. It was not to be. According to our website, Atwater Dining Hall holds 400 standing. After last year’s incident, the party was moved to the Bunker, with a mere capacity of 199. I understand that this year there were multiple other parties going on the same night as the VACA party. But the fact remains that everyone wants to go to the featured party with the dope DJs. A place like McCullough, with a standing capacity of 600, might not have the same “atmosphere,” but it would have let everyone dance, and the more people a party has, the better it inherently becomes.

I eventually ended up getting into the Bunker through a side door and had a great time, which also seemed to be true for everyone else dancing under the strobe lights. I think the party’s idea is awesome. But, my advice to VACA, MCAB or whoever decides to host next year’s Halloween bash, is not to title it “No Riot” and switch it into a smaller space. No, just move it to a bigger venue, and maybe next year even more cowboys, cheerleaders, Snookis and Gagas will be able to strut their stuff without first having to survive the mob outside.