Students discuss Halloween traditions at Tulane, in New Orleans

“Halloween, to me, in New Orleans, and especially at Tulane, isn’t just a weekend or just a day — it is a whole week,” junior Charles Copetas said.

Copetas said that for some Tulane students and himself, Halloween season starts with the Voodoo Music and Arts Experience, a three-day live music festival in City Park, filled with food, fun, music and mud.

“I think everyone is going to go to Frenchman as tradition in New Orleans,” Copetas said. “Every Tulane student wants to go to Frenchman to celebrate costumes and all.”

Frenchman Street is located in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood and is a primary nightlife destination for both tourists and locals.

Not every Tulane student plans to go to Frenchman Street. Jordan Dahlhauser, a senior from New Orleans, said he plans to go bars in the French Quarter and people-watch with his friends.

“What I love most about New Orleans is the fact that you don’t really have to look hard for entertainment, especially during the holiday season,” Dahlhauser said. “If you’re downtown, uptown, or in Mid-City, odds are you can easily find something to get into.”

According to Dahlhauser, however, the Halloween traditions Tulane students engage in sometimes lack depth.

“I feel like Tulane students’ participation in New Orleans Halloween traditions is more of a surface-level thing, but at the same time, I think that’s just part of college culture,” Dahlhauser said.

Morgan Guerra, a sophomore from New Orleans, said Tulane’s party culture influences Halloween and other holidays.

“I have found that a lot of family-oriented events and holidays that I celebrated before coming to college have been somewhat formed into a party by the college atmosphere,” Guerra said.

rocky horror
Adelaide Basco | Senior Staff Photographer

Guerra said she enjoys driving around with her family to see and at decorated houses on Halloween night.

Some students also said they attend “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” screening and stage performance on Halloween or the weekend preceding Halloween. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” originally aired in 1975. Today, however, theaters across the country host shadow casting performances, where actors perform the plot as the movie plays behind them.

According to junior Reid Bowman, the lead roll in tonight’s performance, the shadow casting performance of Rock Horror invites audience participation.

“People come, and they dress up and throw popcorn and toast and toilet paper,” Bowman said. “It is basically like a costume party event that you just go and get really drunk at and it is an experience.”

The Well Hung Speakers will host two shows tonight at the Prytania Theater, at 10 p.m. and midnight, respectively.

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