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The Rotunda
Thursday, July 10, 2025

Booths of Oktoberfest

As part of the rich tapestry of Longwood traditions, Oktoberfest is a welcome reprieve from the work of academic, graduate and undergraduate careers. With food, music and the brisk weather of early autumn, Oktoberfest also delivers up such treats as the bier garden and the simple camaraderie of one's friends. Another marker of Oktoberfest is the plywood booths set up on the space between Stubbs lawn and the free speech area at the rear of Lankford Student Union. With their backs to the Dining Hall picnic, their feet to the lawn's causeways and facing the plethora of sounds booming from live acts and the WMLU intermission music, the booths are a rallying point for students looking for a place to stand and eat and organizations looking for a place to express and advance their individual missions.

Perhaps this is the meat in an Oktoberfest stew too soothing for proverbs, the point for everyone coming out and staying while the music roars sonorously in the background. There is someone selling fried fish, live beta, funnel cakes and fried candy bars, there are large cardboard letters, henna and decorative cups. This is the personalized material of Oktoberfest that comes from the effort and increasing talent of our own homegrown students. It is something that is sure to be embraced and doubtlessly supported.

Out of the dozens of booths that numbered nearly the huge amount of student involvement on campus, ten were available to speak and be available as a kind of survey for the overall condition of the booths occupied as part of Oktoberfest. The various opinions of persons involved show what depths of commitment and spirited personality to which Longwood students all can aspire.

First on the list is Amanda Davis representing the Secular Student Alliance booth. Davis said, explaining her organization's booth, "We put it together in about three days but it's still pretty awesome. It's for the Secular Student Alliance on Campus, which is for nonreligious students [etc.]. It promotes community for us so we can do good work so people don't think we're from Satan. We've got a ball toss over here. Try to get a ball in the cup…[per cup] you either get a bag of Swedish fish, which we're calling "Darwin fish", and Sour Patch Kids which we were previously calling "edible babies" but people didn't like that." Davis also mentioned, "[The attractions were] easy and [were selected because they] might attract people to have some fun. Its just balls, cups stuck onto cardboard with a hot glue gun, and tape because the hot glue on one of the cups broke." Expressing her opinion on Oktoberfest, Davis also said, "It's pretty good, it's been fun, and the music's good because its from the ‘80s, and I like the ‘80s right now…Anime Club's doing a really cool thing: They've got waiters walking around." Expressing her only possible improvement for Oktoberfest, Davis said, "The meeting for booths was at four o'clock this year and I missed it so I was lucky to get this booth…so if they'd hold it later, that'd be better."

 Also available to speak was Alyssa Foley with the Student Government Association. Foley said, "We are an organization that helps students on campus, and we are just here to show our support for Oktoberfest and hopefully get work out for people to recognize us on campus." Among her booths featured attractions were two delicious varieties of Candy Apples: regular, and speckled with M&Ms. About the festival, Alyssa said, "Oktoberfest is really great. It's my last one and it's lived up to its name." Being a senior this year, Foley also spoke on her feelings about the future saying, "If I can come back for next Oktoberfest, I will, and I am for sure excited for Spring Weekend."

Appreciated for their time and the great gifts they bring to Longwood's Oktoberfest, we look at these individuals and others who were manning the booths with an air of respect and consummate enjoyment.

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