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Grisfest 2024

Sienna Soemitro ’26 in News | October 11, 2024

This past Saturday evening, the Griswold House hosted Grisfest, their annual school-wide event, in the Circle. Griswold President Joao Abrahao ’26 and Social Representative Holden Pettinelli ’26 planned the event together in collaboration with Director of Student Life Ian August. While planning with August, Abrahao and Pettinelli initially faced challenges in deciding which activities students would enjoy the most, and they wanted to create an environment wherein people could actively participate. Although they initially had concerns about a lack of sign ups, there were almost 40 teams in the tournament. 

In the Grisfest announcement video played during a School Meeting, former Lawrentian and member of Griswold Dani Castro ’26 made a surprise appearance, much to the crowd’s enjoyment. The Lawrence was able to contact Castro, who has returned to Mexico City, Mexico. Castro explained that he was asked by Abrahao to film two simple, short videos presenting the spikeball tournament for the event. While he may be far from Lawrenceville, he feels very happy that “the Grisfest tradition is still going on strong” and feels proud to represent the House even though he no longer resides in it.

Abrahao enjoyed “watching two great teams in the final, [both of which] really wanted the win.” 

Likewise, Pettinelli’s favorite part of Grisfest was watching the spikeball tournament and “seeing people’s reactions after winning their matches.” Although expectations were high because of Grisfest’s success last year, Pettinelli expressed that he thinks it went “as [well] and smooth as it could’ve been.”

Audrey Liu ’26 stated that she would have enjoyed a wider range of food options. Liu liked the cotton candy and dumplings, but she wished the food was more similar to “the type of food [they] had at the block party earlier this year.” Nevertheless, Liu still enjoyed Grisfest and was happy that the community could come together for a fun event, despite the absence of many students on campus on Saturday night. She appreciated hanging out with friends and playing spikeball.

Similarly, Niki Das ’26 appreciated the community’s coming together to have fun on a Saturday night, and her favorite part was racing her friends through the bouncy castle. “However, if they had music at Grisfest, it would’ve made [the event] even better,” mentioned Das. 

Overall, Grisfest was a great success for the community and Griswold, who will hopefully continue this tradition for many years to come. Congratulations to the winners of the spikeball tournament, Toler Wreaks ’27 and Will Rue ’27!

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