As a first year student at Bates, I didn’t really know what to expect when I found out about Bateschella. One of the first things that initially made me want to attend was finding out that there would be free food for people who showed up early, so I have to admit I was sold from the very beginning.

I made sure to show up extra early so that I would be guaranteed one of the 700 free orders of poutine, and honestly, it was a little awkward standing around with not that many other people. However, as soon as I saw how many poutine flavors there were, my curiosity was piqued. While I contemplated trying the dill pickle flavor, I decided to go with the original instead, which was pretty good. Honestly, it seemed as though everyone there came for the free food, but the reactions to the varied flavors seemed mixed.

Another event that appeared to have questionable reactions was the axe-throwing event. While I tried it out, I was a bit surprised by the inflatable targets. Most of the people that I talked to were perplexed by this as well, and found it not to be what they had originally thought of when they heard that there would be axe throwing. 

Many of them had been excited about the idea of throwing an actual axe into a target, which is probably why they were so surprised to discover that the targets were inflatable. In terms of the bounce house, people seemed to find it fun, except for the brief moment when one side came crashing down, and onlookers seemed to think that it had popped. Luckily, that was not the case, and it did not appear that anyone was seriously injured. 

One of the events that was marketed that had my attention from the very beginning was the mechanical unicorn. No one that I talked with beforehand knew exactly what to assume from a mechanical unicorn, and everyone who rode it seemed to have a somewhat different experience with it. 

Personally, I fell off after twelve seconds, but some of the people that I watched were able to stay on quite a bit longer. I’m definitely glad that I tried the mechanical unicorn, and I thought it was pretty fun, especially considering I had no idea what to expect going into it. As for the music, none of the people that I talked to, myself included, had ever heard of any of the bands, which included Alto Moon and Prinze George, before attending Bateschella. 

Even so, everyone seemed to be impressed by how many styles and types of music the bands played. Additionally, people seemed to be having a very chaotic, loud, and fun time with it, which is honestly a good way to describe the experience of Bateschella overall.