Although there were various different celebrations of Halloween around campus, this year I decided to venture down the hill. The college hill renowned Artists’ Ball was my choice of destination for Friday night. I was lucky enough to have friends at RISD who more than gladly bought tickets for me and so we all went as a big group.
For starters, I spent a lot more time crafting my costume for Friday’s artsy festivities than I did any other day of the week I went out to celebrate Halloween. More than that though, there was a sense that the costume didn’t have to be slutty or raunchy or provocative in any way to call attention. The whole point of the night was to be creative and have fun, rather than show skin and hook up. This became even more obvious when we arrived at the party. All the costumes seemed to be original and creative. Although I can’t quite pinpoint particular ones — there were so many I loved it was hard to keep track of — I know for a fact I didn’t see any sexy nurse or sexy cop outfits.
In spite of all the hype that exists on Brown campus about the party, it really is just a party. It seems that Brown students want to give Artists’ Ball the kind of fame SPG has, yet to me the allure of Artists’ Ball had nothing to do with how crazy or weird it was. I had a great time because I went with a large group of friends, but once I was there, I didn’t know anybody. It was a fresh take on the whole party scene, for the first time I looked around and didn’t know anybody and wasn’t sure if I would ever see any of these people again. So I danced without inhibitions and acted whatever way I wanted to act, without worrying about what others would think or making a fool of myself.