At Harvard-Yale Spirit Events, Students Face Long Lines and Chaotic Merch Grabs

Students expressed disappointment with the long lines and inability to get free merchandise at spirit events hosted by the College in the week leading up to the 140th Harvard-Yale Game.

The Harvard College Events Board hosted spirit events HYpefest and HYsteria on Tuesday and Friday, respectively, and the Harvard Undergraduate Association gave out free merchandise on Wednesday. The events also featured free food, music, games, and more.

HUA Co-President Jonathan Haileselassie ’26, who helped organize the HUA Harvard-Yale merch giveaway, said the event’s purpose was “just to generate hype” since his administration is “really focused on building together a united Harvard.”

Adriana Hernandez ’26, who attended the giveaway, said she found herself being jostled around by other students who were cutting in line due to the lack of multiple entry points.

“I think it’s hard because they hype it up, they put it on social media, they blast the emails about it, then they have one point of entry to go from there into chaos,” Hernandez said.

“I would say it's still community building. It just shows that people care about the, I don't know about, the game,” Hernandez added.

Students who attended other events also noted long wait times and chaotic merch grabs.

Emiliano G. Berlanga ’28, who attended HYpefest, said he “came for the free food, for the free merch, the free everything.”

Berlanga, who arrived at the event 40 minutes early, was able to grab merchandise — but others weren’t so lucky.

Samantha F. Capehart ’28 said she “stood in line for forever at HYpefest,” only to find that “they were all out.”

A College spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement to The Crimson that the CEB has “learned from this experience and will apply lessons to future events.”

“We understand that it can feel challenging to wait in line for a limited amount of merchandise at one specific event but know that across all events for the whole week, a lot of items were available, and the goal was always to ensure access to a wide variety of options,” he wrote.

Avery B. Kim ’27 said the College could have improved programming by “having more events” and “spreading it over a longer time.”

“A lot of people always walk away from these kinds of events being like, ‘Well, maybe if I got here earlier,’ ‘Next time I’ll do this,’ ‘Next time I’ll do that.’ So I feel like there’s got to be a better way to motivate, make sure that everyone can participate in school spirit,” Kim said.

“If people are waiting here for two hours just to get a piece of merch that should already be provided by the administration, and they can’t be studying or whatever, that’s not on the students — that’s on the administration,” Kim added.

Still, many students praised the events for generating school spirit.

Kaitlyn T. Vu ’27 said spirit was “pretty evident closer to these big events,” but it “would kind of be nice to have a little bit more of it during the school year.”

“Obviously, Harvard is not a sports school,” Vu said. “But during this time of year or near the game, it’s always nice to see that people do care and people do want to uplift each other, especially against Yale.”

Asked about future improvements for such events, Haileselassie said the organization would need to wait until the event was over.

“I think we have to wait to see how this all finishes up, and then we’ll take a look at student feedback and see,” he said.

Capehart, who had never attended a football game before Harvard-Yale, noted that “this is the most school spirit I’ve definitely seen from anything or anyone, which is pretty fun.”

“We’ll see if it lives up to the hype,” Capehart said.