Students celebrate Fall Fest

Autumn means midterms, college football and erratic weather to students across the country…. Autumn means midterms, college football and erratic weather to students across the country. But to those at Pitt, it also means games, music and maybe even a massage every time Fall Fest overtakes Bigelow Boulevard.

While many see Friday night as an opportunity to relax after a long week of work, a select group of student volunteers from the Pitt Program Council spent their Friday evening assembling the final pieces of the PPC’s 14th annual Fall Fest.

“Right now,” Roger White, director of special events, said on Friday night, “The only thing I can look forward to is tomorrow.”

The event, which was free to students, featured an appearance by punk rock group Hawthorne Heights along with the rest of the Nintendo Fusion Tour.

The festivities began shortly after noon on Saturday. Those in attendance had an array of activities to choose from, including face painting, root beer pong, chair massages and inflatable boxing.

Five Guys Burgers and Fries even hosted a hot dog eating contest for those with the intestinal fortitude to compete.

Attendees also had the opportunity to preview the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo’s next-generation answer to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.

Nintendo plans to release the Wii to the general public next month.

“I liked it, it was really different,” freshman and self-proclaimed gaming guru Andrew Wright said. “It was really cool to be able to play the Wii before it’s even gone on sale.”

Nintendo brought the Wii along with the music of the Nintendo Fusion Tour. Pittsburgh was one of almost 40 stops along the tour, which has been visiting cities nationwide over the course of about six weeks.

With Hawthorne Heights as the lead act, the tour also features rock groups Relient K, Emery, Plain White T’s and The Sleeping.

Junior Andrew Stryker said that overall “it was a great mix of people coming together,” but it could have been more organized.

As Bigelow Boulevard grew more and more congested with students, some of the lines grew to the point where “you feel like you’re waiting in a line leading to nowhere,” resulting in many missing out on some of the more popular activities, such as trying out the Wii, Stryker said.

“The crowd also didn’t seem to be too pumped by the bands, but the activities made up for it,” he added.

White said that for every event, the goal for the PPC is to “provide the best possible events for the most possible students.”

Executive Board Director Andrea Youngo said she was thrilled with the number of student volunteers this year, and that Fall Fest “has become a Pitt tradition that all students look forward to.”

Some lucky students were able to walk away from the event with more than just memories. “I made a pong shot and won myself a goldfish,” freshman Matthew Bucovetsky said. “He’s my new best friend.”