Winterfest Postmortem

We’re two weeks downstream of Winterfest. The wounds are still fresh. The final scenes of battle continue in their fury to haunt my dreams. I wonder what could have been done differently. I weep purple tears and curse the blighted Orange figures dancing upon our graves. 

Congratulations to the Orange Team, led by Proctors Finn F. ’27 and Amelia P. ’26 on what was, in truth, an honest and well earned victory in this year’s Dublin School Winterfest. Excellent from end-to-end, Orange embraced the energy of their patron Pantone during Twin Day and refused to let up throughout the weekend’s program of events. 

Winterfest is always a special weekend on campus. Coming at the nadir of winter, it reinvigorates the community at a time when we’re running on fumes. It’s an exhausting weekend for everyone involved, and yet most seem to emerge renewed in an important and incalculable way. 

This year’s Winterfest carried special significance because it is Mr. Bates’s swan song. And don’t think this wasn’t top of mind for us. Following Friday’s lip sync competition, a small group of students took to the floor of the Lousie Shonk Kelly Recital Hall and caught Mr. Bates off guard when they began to lip sync to Fly Like an Eagle, commencing a touching tribute that emptied the audience of students, who swarmed Mr. Bates en masse and – how do I put it?? – enveloped him in their most remarkable aura. We will miss him next year, all of us, though nobody more so than the students of Dublin School. 

Photos from the weekend are live on pixevety!