Fall Fest

For the right type of person, Fall Fest is pretty great. I guess I’m just not that type.
It’s always packed. If you go in a group, you’ll still get lost. Bring your cell phone but don’t expect to actually call anyone (they won’t be able to hear a thing.) I always hear tales of free food, but every time, it’s gone by the time I get there. The inflatables are nice. In the end, though, it’s basically just walking down, stopping at a few booths (tapering off the further into the school year you get), maybe going on the inflatable once or twice, and then leaving.
If you’re a freshman, though, definitely go; it’s how you can get on all the listservs and get some traffic into your inbox (even if you might regret doing so a few months later!)

Fall Fest is the marker that official starts the school year at UNC, and quite a rockin’ marker it is.
Christina makes an excellent point: Your instinct here may be to scoff at Fall Fest because it’s university-​organized and liquor-​less (I know because I used to be one of the scoffers). You’d be wrong, though. Fall Fest is one of most flat-​out good times that I consistently have at UNC. Hell, I’m not even a student any more, and I still show up to support BoUNCe Magazine and have a great time.
Free food is key. Knock out all of it that you can, let the diet start tomorrow. Find the snow cones early, though, because they go fast. Next, find all of the student organizations that take themselves way too seriously and pretend to want to join, all while mocking them mercilessly (I recommend the Crew Team, the Carolina Review, and the Baptist Student Union to start). Finally, head down onto the Hooker Fields for the inflatable obstacle courses.
You’ll want to come with a group of people and designate one portion of the street as your home base, then move out in groups of two or three and periodically come back to join your fellows… if you wander around in a group larger than two or three, you’ll end up losing everybody in the crowds. Have a ball!

Fall Fest is an outdoor event in August organized by UNC on the Sunday before classes begin to promote safer (ie, ‘dry’) alternatives to the back-​to-​school parties thrown by Frat Court and others. If you don’t write off the event as ‘lame’, then you might actually find yourself having a good time. In my day, the festival was well attended and offered a variety of attractions and activities. Free food will win over most college students, but if that doesn’t do it, they also had rock climbing, step shows, band and a capella group performances, athletic competitions, and a slew of campus organizations promoting awareness and giving away goods (brochures, buttons, schedules; plastic cups — great for the dormitory kitchen! free condoms; safe sex! who needs mechanical pencils? get your old-​school #2’s emblazoned with UNC Tarheel Crew Team right here!). My roommate and I even snuck off with a beyond-​giant helium balloon (impossible to actually ‘sneak’ off with) to grace our dorm-​room one year. Worth it for the memories alone!