This year’s Fall Fest brought together the Hamilton and Clinton communities. On Saturday, Oct. 5, Hamilton College students traveled downhill to the Clinton Village Green for the annual Fall Fest. The event was organized by Hamilton Student Activities, the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, Sadove Programming, and Student Assembly’s Traditions Committee.

Those in attendance could enjoy numerous activities, including pumpkin painting, a cappella performances, and the Off the Hill Challenge. The Clinton Cider Mill also provided free food and snacks for the event.

Nadav Konforty ’20, President of the Class of 2020 and Chair of the Traditions Committee, particularly enjoyed the Cider Mill’s contributions to the event, saying, “The limit does not exist on how many Cider [Mill] donuts you can have.”

Konforty described his experience organizing Fall Fest as occasionally stressful but ultimately worth the results.

“From where I am right now […] watching kids painting pumpkins, a cappella was here before, and all this food, it really feels good that, especially with Fall Fest, we can facilitate that connection between Hamilton and the greater community,” he said. As a senior, Konforty noted that being able to organize Fall Fest as a “full circle moment, but it’s bittersweet.”

Many students participated in the Off the Hill Challenge, which consisted of visiting a variety of local businesses in order to earn a free “Off the Hill Challenge” t-shirt. The Cremeria, Dawn Marie’s Treasures, and Soul Bowl, and many other Clinton establishments hosted stops for the Challenge. A few participating businesses, such as Krizia Martin Apparel & Gifts, offered raffles for students to enter, and Clinton Florists gave each student who visited a free succulent.

Konforty said that he has attended Fall Fest every year that he has been at Hamilton. “I still have the shirt from the Off the Hill Challenge [from] my first year,” he said. He also mentioned that he kept the pumpkin that he decorated at his first Fall Fest for “as long as I could, until Winter Break when it started getting gross.”

Konforty recalled participating in the Off the Hill Challenge in his first year as a great opportunity to get acquainted with the Clinton community by visiting the local stores.

“It’s a really great day when everyone is so open and expecting students to come in,” he said. However, he has not completed the Challenge since his first year, stating that, “I think in years after, I didn’t want to take the shirts from the first-year students who might want them, but I still went around to the shops.”

Nyaari Kothiya ’23, a Student Assembly Representative for the Class of 2023 and Traditions Committee member, attended her first Fall Fest this year and also completed the Off the Hill Challenge. Kothiya echoed Konforty’s sentiments of experiencing the event for the first time, saying, “It’s so good to be out of the Hamilton bubble and actually see people who are not college aged […] It’s a different experience than being up the Hill all the time.”

Kothiya’s role in organizing Fall Fest this year consisted of putting up posters on the Dark Side of campus and setting up the activities before people arrived. She also stayed back after the event ended to help clean up the Village Green. Kothiya said that she looks forward to both attending and helping organize Fall Fest again next year.