Photo courtesy of Amanda Sanders ’22
Tent Dance, or Fall Ball depending on who you ask, is a Connecticut College tradition that’s been previously plagued by eastern equine encephalitis (otherwise known as EEE), and Covid-19 has finally returned to campus, tent and all, as announced by Dean Norbert in an email on Sept. 29.
“We are excited to announce the return of the annual tradition of Fall Ball, our all campus party under the tent on Tempel Green,” his email stated, prompting a flood of questions from sophomores and first-year students who had never attended such an event. Yik Yak was flooded with posts about dress codes, dates, and what the difference between “Tent Dance” and “Fall Ball” really was. For those wondering, the answer to the latter question is that they are the same.
Traditionally Fall Ball is held on the Saturday night of Fall Weekend and is open to students and alumni. To limit the number of people attending this year, it was held on Oct. 9th, the Saturday after Fall Weekend, and was only open to current students.
In order to attend, Conn students were required to follow new safety measures to ensure that the party would not be a superspreader event for Covid-19. Students were asked to fill out an RSVP form through Google Forms and take a Covid-19 Binax rapid test on the day of the event between 10 am and 5 pm. According to Dean Norbert, over 1300 students RSVP’d for the celebration. After receiving the results of their tests, students got wristbands that allowed them to enter the Fall Ball tent. Students that did not have a wristband were not allowed to attend the event. The Office of Student Engagement also brought complimentary food trucks to the top of the green, featuring favorites such as Munchies, Greekin’ Out and Waffle Wagon.
Camels descended onto Tempel Green a little after 11 pm to a space warmer than the 63 degrees promised in that day’s weather report to dance to music played by D.J. GetRight and revel under the purple lights with hundreds of other students.
For seniors, the last class year to have been able to attend Fall Ball in the traditional tent space, the promise of the event is exciting, while some of the rules bring confusion.
“I am glad that Fall Ball is going ahead, and I think that all of the security and safety measures are good,” stated Aquib Akhtar ‘22. “I wonder why guests wouldn’t be allowed when surely they could also get rapid tests. It’s the same level of safety. I do understand that there is probably more to it than that but if that was what was conveyed it is a bit confusing. Surely if this is a one-day event it could be possible. However, I’d rather it go ahead though than not at all.”
Julia Graham ‘22 concurred, saying “I don’t have super strong feelings about any of [the Covid-19 policies], but I am excited that it’s getting to happen, especially since it’s senior year and I feel like the stuff they’re doing with the rapid tests seems pretty smart.”
For freshmen there were a range of opinions for the highly discussed event.
“I don’t really know what I expected Fall Ball to be like because the only things I heard were from seniors, but it was definitely not what I expected. The tightly packed tent, really cold weather, and slow-moving food truck lines made the experience not the most enjoyable. All my friends and I could think about was putting on sweatpants and eating our waffles inside,” said Daviel Schulman ‘25.
“[I] wasn’t really going in with high hopes since it’s been so long since I have been to a dance pre-Covid but I had a great time dancing with my teammates,” said Caitlin Horgan ‘25 on her own experience.
Tent Dance’s return to campus was a long-awaited moment that suggested our campus could truly bring back events in the safest possible way given the circumstances.
