On Wednesday, Toad’s Place held “Hallowoads,” a Yale-exclusive dance party in celebration of Halloween.

Students fleeing essays, p-sets, and other academic responsibilities congregated at Toads for the event, which began the informal week-long celebration of Halloween, affectionately known as “Halloweek.” The dance party began at 10 p.m. and continued until 1 a.m. The event was a themed version of “Woads,” the weekly dance party enjoyed and abused by Yale students every Wednesday night. For the event, students were encouraged to don Halloween costumes.

The temptation of Hallowoads even compelled some students to lose their Woads’ v-card. One such virgin was Tommy Schacht ’21, a petitioner for the Conservative Party, frequent church-goer, and Indiana native.

“It will probably be underwhelming – a lot of drunk, sweaty people on a dance floor,” the optimistic, merry first-year said. “I imagine that a majority will be dressing up.”

His assumption proved accurate. Outside of Toad’s, a massive line of nuns, devils, angels and cats had formed by 10:30 p.m. Some teams wore matching costumes, such as Heavyweight Crew — team members wore women’s dresses. This year, the dark horse costume was a sexy farmer (overalls, no shirt).

According to employees, Hallowoads always attracts the most students of any Toad’s event. Greg Goto, affectionately nicknamed “Thor” by his co-workers, has been an employee at Toad’s for five years, and was particularly impressed by a “group of unicorns, at least eight. That was my favorite.” WKND must emphasize that both male and female students sported said unicorn costumes.

By 11 p.m., most Yale students were inside Toad’s Place, though we don’t actually have a source for that. However, an anonymous poll of 41 students was taken inside of Toad’s Place on Wednesday night. The poll found that 100% of Yale students attended Hallowoads.

Every week, Woads acts as a purgation of stress for the average sad Yale boy and girl, and dancing for three hours has proved itself the best elixir if you are suffering from imposter syndrome.

Lily Weisberg ’21 recounted a particular dance battle between two hot dogs (yes, hot dogs) within Hallowoads.

“So my friend Eric came in a hot dog costume. And I said, ‘Eric! There’s another hot dog!’ To which Eric replied, ‘I have to have a dance battle with that hot dog!’ And then the dance battle went on for about five seconds. There was a lot of fist bumping.”

Weisberg proceeded to give a visual example of how one fist bumps.

Emily Rodriguez ’21 also noted the high frequency at which people were participating in Dance Floor Make-outs – DFMO’s for short.

“There were a lot of people making out…every thirty seconds I would see someone new.”

Given Yale’s infamous hook-up culture, Rodriguez’s testimony, which seems to be an exaggeration, is actually probably accurate.

Some of the more seasoned Woads Scholars complained about the crowded venue. The line was noticeably longer, and walking onto the dance floor was condemning yourself to being stepped on, pushed, and elbowed constantly.

Yet, despite it being crammed, the general consensus was that Hallowoads fulfilled the hype. As a way to start Halloweek, it succeeded. Now, students are expecting more Halloween celebrations throughout the rest of the week.

“It is a good start [to Halloweek]. I want to see what Yale can show me,” said an anonymous first-year in Morse College.

WKND attempted to interview three police officers outside of Toad’s about how they handle the popular annual event, but they declined to comment. Some noted this may have been due to the fact the reporter was dressed as a sexy farmer, but WKND cannot confirm or deny this allegation.

Although the night itself has been confirmed a success, any Woads attendee will affirm that the experience of Toad’s Place continues long into the next morning when students remember that they have a 9 a.m. class.

“I had to give an hour long presentation on agriculture and agroforestry in Haiti at 9 a.m.,” said an anonymous student in Pierson College. The source has remained anonymous in fear that her grade on the presentation will be affected. “I didn’t go to bed until 2 a.m. Still, Hallowoads was worth the pain that I felt this morning.”

While students will be dressed in less creative, less ridiculous attire next week, Toad’s Place will continue to hold Yale dance parties on Wednesdays during the semester for the foreseeable future. Doors open at 10 p.m.

You must be 21 to consume alcohol in the state of Connecticut.

Nick Tabio | nick.tabio@yale.edu

NICK TABIO