Hundreds of MIT students attend FallFest 2025 on Kresge Oval
Activities included live music, free food, student booths, and more
Lee Chen–The Tech
Ericsson Ansah-Antwi
Ericsson Ansah-Antwi
Lee Chen–The Tech
Ericsson Ansah-Antwi
On Oct. 18, 2025, hundreds of MIT students descended upon Kresge Lawn from 4–7 p.m. for FallFest 2025, hosted by MIT Student Events Board (SEB).
The evening featured live music from bands Barely Educated, Tony Just Tony, and One Red Cent, as well as MIT LIVE, an organization that allows MIT student musicians to arrange music and perform live. Present at the event were food trucks that provided free waffles from Zinneken’s Belgian Waffles and fried chicken from Augusta’s.
Asian American Association (AAA), Latte Lab, Chocolate City, MIT Borderline, Chinese Students Club (CSC), G@MIT, the Wellbeing Lab, and MIT Farm organized booths with a variety of activities and free snacks. FallFest also featured caricatures from “Alex Draws You.”
Janae Frimpong ’29 attended FallFest from 4–6 p.m. and found the event very enjoyable, visiting the SEB pumpkin painting booth and snacking on a rice ball at the AAA booth. She wanted to plant her own succulent at the Wellbeing Lab’s booth, but they had already run out of plants by the time she got there.
Oluwagbemiga “Gbemi” Odebode ’29 loved seeing support for student artists at FallFest. She went because SEB’s dormspam email “made [FallFest] seem like it would be a fun time.” David Kwabi-Addo ’25 also liked FallFest’s atmosphere, enjoying the bands and appreciating the variety of booths and activities.
A common trend throughout The Tech’s conversations with FallFest attendees was the prolonged wait for free food. Even at 4 p.m., the line for free waffles and fried chicken extended from the stairs outside the Student Center all the way to Kresge Auditorium. After visiting student group booths, Frimpong spent the rest of her time waiting to get tickets for food. “[SEB] decided to stagger the times that people were able to get food, so I was waiting in line for about two hours just to get a piece of chicken,” she said.
Odebode also commented on the long free food lines. While she understood the need for attendees to fully participate, she remarked that, “the bureaucracy involved with getting a meal ticket bordered on Kafka-esque,” referencing the German writer’s disorienting and menacing narratives. Like Obdebode, Kwabi-Addo wished SEB “advertised the ticket system a bit more to get Zinnekin’s [waffles].” In his opinion, it felt more like a “linefest than a FallFest.”
Despite these challenges, Isaac Kiniti ’27 believed FallFest went well, organizing the Chocolate City booth and handing out chocolate chip cookies to guests. According to Kiniti, Chocolate City participated in FallFest to “interface in a positive way with the greater MIT community” as one of the “core goals” of the organization. Since Chocolate City hosts many events with student groups from other universities, the group tries to “take opportunities to develop [their] presence on campus when they arise.”