Parties, dressing up, candy. Halloweekend has passed us yet again. On the afternoon of the 31st, all first-years were bubbling excitedly with potential plans for the night. Most conversations followed a similar format.
“So what are you planning on doing tonight?”
“I’m probably heading to Franklin Street, but I’m really not sure.”
“Wait, so how are you planning to get there?”
“Probably Uber or cab it there and back.”
So if you’re not from the area, you might be wondering what Franklin Street is, and what all the hype is about. Franklin Street is downtown Chapel Hill, the 9th Street of the UNC. Every Halloween, everybody dresses up and strolls up and down the town’s popular main street. In the years between 2004 and 2007, reportedly over 80,000 people attended the festivities. However, the number declined over recent years due to precautions taken such as shutting down major roads connected to the street and stopping the Duke-UNC bus in the evening.
A group of friends and I decided to head over. The first half of our night was incredible. Walking around, we encountered numerous pineapples, Waldos, Disney princesses, and Amazonian royalty.
Following that we got some free insomnia cookies and continued to bump into people we knew. Then the festive Franklin Street turned into a horror show. Here are a few tips for future Franklin Street Halloweeners in the future:
1) Uber: Use it to your advantage, but be careful about surge pricing, it can go up to 9.9x if you leave Franklin Street too late. The average price of an Uber ride to Duke was around 180$ that night (which leads me to my next point).
2) Timings: To have a successful night out, leave for Franklin Street early and head back to Duke on the early side as well. This grave mistake cost us. Think about it economically, if people are still getting ready to hit up Franklin Street then there will be cabs running back and forth, allowing you to find one with ease. My friends and I left around 12:30 and it was too late, we had to wait for 2 hours to find a cab, so beware.
3) Phone: If you are in a group of four or more, please make sure EVERYBODY’S phones are fully charged as you roll up on Franklin Street. By the second hour of us frantically trying to hail down a cab, one by one each of our phones started dying, so we couldn’t split up to try and find a cab.
4) Check the weather: Yes, it’s Halloween. Yes, you probably want to wear something sexy/fierce. I’m not saying don’t do it; however, I am requesting you to check the weather first. Why? As we were into our 2nd hour of cab hunting, the temperatures began to swiftly drop to the low 40’s. Along with that, the clouds decided that our Halloween wasn’t complete until we were utterly destroyed, and so it began to rain. So to summarize, we were freezing and wet, stuck outside in the rain in clothing completely inappropriate for the weather. All in all, not the most ideal situation. So come prepared.
While my first Halloweekend at college will be one I won’t forget, it can be one you won’t forget too, but now for probably very different reasons.