Keene State senior Jesse Reynolds said that, when posts started popping up on social media about student riots occurring in Keene, he decided to steer clear of the town’s annual Pumpkin Festival altogether. Student celebrations associated with Pumpkin Fest, which was originally founded as a family celebration, devolved into an hours-long riot between students and police on Saturday afternoon.
Police in black riot gear attempted to disperse student parties with tear gas and pepper spray. In response, some 4,000 students—many fueled by alcohol—poured into the streets, lit bonfires, overturned cars, threw bottles, pulled up street signs, and vandalized property.
“I saw a little bit of the aftermath of it, and it was just atrocious,” Reynolds said of the damage that the riots caused the normally bucolic New Hampshire town.
Keene’s Pumpkin Festival is an annual celebration in which town residents and visitors decorate the town with lit pumpkins, lining Main Street and stacked in a large tower in the Central Square. The goal is to amass the greatest number of lit pumpkins in the world each year.
For Keene State students, Pumpkin Fest is a party weekend, separate from the town’s festivities. The student parties grew in size and notoriety until last year when festivities got out of hand as students started throwing liquor bottles at a large gathering.
“When bottles are being thrown up in the air in the yard at some of these large gatherings, a dangerous and risky environment (presents) itself,” said Kemal Atkins, vice president for student affairs at Keene State. “Crowds need to be dispersed when students are being injured and students are suffering head injuries because they got hit in the head with bottles. Our top concern is the safety of our students.”
In response to the out-of-control behavior in 2013, authorities say that the college attempted to prepare for this year’s Pumpkin Festival but were overwhelmed by the sheer number of students.
