The New Paltz Oracle
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October 2nd, 2024
Paltz Encounters: "On the chilly Halloweekend night of my freshman year ..."
“Hallosteen”
On the chilly Halloweekend night of my freshman year, my roommate and I found ourselves with nothing to do and no party to attend. Scrolling mindlessly through YikYak, I saw someone had posted about a house show later that evening. I heard about the New Paltz music scene pre-pandemic, and its lively nature filling the houses of off-campus students; I had yet to attend one.
I figured it was worth the comment and asked for an address, expecting it to be ignored. To my surprise, I was given an answer. I looked to my roommate, “Get up and get dressed, we’re going out.”
We put on our costumes and made the trek from campus to a house well past the Stewart’s in town. We didn’t know if the party was even real until we were about 50 feet from the house and began to hear music.
We were greeted on the porch by a man who I would later find out lived there and is in one of my favorite bands. We went up to the second floor and walked into a living room bursting with music and costumes.
We saw nuns, Princess Leia, lumberjacks, Hogwarts students and Slash. In the years since that night those people have become my community, and every year I find out someone else in my life was at that party too. We may not have known it that night, but we all first met at “Hallosteen.”
