On October 31, the annual Fall Fest was held on the first floor of the D.P. Culp Student Center from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The festival was held by Buctainment where a variety of organizations set up booths and offered games, candy, prizes and giveaways. Students were free to walk through the festival and dress up in their Halloween costumes as they learned ways to get involved on campus including clubs, associations and organizations.

Photo of a student playing ring toss at the annual Fall Fest. (Dora Mercado/East Tennessean)

Devin Price is the staff programmer for Buctainment, he oversees weekend and special events on campus. He contacts agents and different organizations to table at the interactive event for Bucs to find their club of interest, highlighting that there’s a club for every student to take part in and get involved on campus.

“What I hope students take away from this event is to get involved on campus,” Price said.

Planning for Fall Fest began in September and stretched out into October. As Buctaintment has been hosting Fall Fest annually since 2021, success has only increased with the ETSU population as the improvement of COVID-19 cases allowed crowd participation once again.

“I know for me, when I first got here, there was nothing to do since it was during COVID,” Price said. “Now you have the opportunity and the chance to get out and try new things and meet new people.”

Photo of the Public Health Student Association at the annual Fall Fest. (Dora Mercado/East Tennessean)

Aiming to make the ETSU community more interactive in their environment, the Fall Fest encouraged students to step out and participate in what organizations had to offer. Giveaways were also hosted such as the Collegiate Merchandising Association hosted a design contest where the winner won a $10 Starbucks gift card. After tabling was over at 7:30 p.m., Buctainment showcased the movie “Talk to Me” (2023) in the Culp Auditorium.

For more information on annual events held at ETSU, visit https://www.etsu.edu/students/sao/annual.php. For more information on Buctainment, visit https://www.etsu.edu/students/sao/organizations/buctainment.php.