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If you witnessed a sea of 1,100 banana-suited Syracuse University students, and even a few parents, taking over local bars on Saturday, your eyes didn’t deceive you. Students peeled back their insecurities and let loose in their yellow costumes, hitting bars from Orange Crate Brewing Company off campus to Margarita’s Mexican Cantina downtown.

“I feel incognito,” SU senior Natalie D’Alto said. “I can just do whatever I want, I can dance and it’s fine. I feel non-judged.”

The Banana Bar Crawl hosted the fifth stop of its American tour this weekend in Syracuse. MOSEA, a marketing agency, runs the crawl in locations across Canada and the United States. A ticket to the crawl covered the cost of one banana costume, free entry to all participating bars and a deal on Happy Dad hard seltzers.

People milling around on Marshall Street asked the wave of banana-suited students about their outfits. The event seemed to draw in more students than other bar crawls, SU senior Chris Godoy said – probably because of its costumes. Many students said wearing the same thing made them feel more connected.

Though plenty of students had never heard of The Banana Bar Crawl before, the event’s absurdity is what convinced students to come, SU senior Jordan Avinoam said.

“I feel like everyone can just be themselves and not worry about looking good because we’re all really weird in these banana costumes,” Avinoam said.

Throughout the crawl, students completed a list of challenges, such as starting a conga line or doing the worm dance. Students won prizes for completing challenges by sending proof to the crawl’s Instagram account.

“When everyone’s doing these crawls, everyone’s posting on their story, everyone’s posting on Instagram, because it’s something different, it’s something fun,” Noah Battaglia, head of partnerships and experience for The Banana Bar Crawl, said.

Cassie Roshu | Digital Managing Editor /p>

Noah Battaglia, head of partnerships and experience for The Banana Bar Crawl, poses with students at Orange Crate who participated in the event.

Battaglia said MOSEA wanted to offer a fun weekend event that’s different from a college students’ typical time out on the town. Students echoed Battaglia’s sentiments, saying The Banana Bar Crawl felt like more of a social environment than the typical weekend bar scene.

Battaglia and his friends had been doing bar crawls across Canada when they saw a TikTok of 10 people dressed in banana costumes doing a bar crawl in their city.

About a year ago, MOSEA started banana bar crawls at Canadian universities and colleges. Now, partnered with Barstool Sports and Happy Dad, it’s expanded The Banana Bar Crawl to schools across the United States.

Five percent of the crawl’s proceeds go to the Food Bank of Central New York. MOSEA also partnered with Greek life organizations to donate 10% of the proceeds from sorority or fraternity ticket sales to their affiliated philanthropy.

Weekend visitors didn’t shy away from the banana bash either. D’Alto said her friend from home even texted her that she was also dressed as a banana on Saturday for The Banana Bar Crawl at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Senior Katie Adkins’ dad, Carl Adkins, happened to visit this weekend, so she let him know in advance they’d be dressing as bananas for the crawl. The father-daughter duo said the crawl was a bonding experience for them.

Carl was a hit among the other bananas. One challenge requested the attendee pose with a Happy Dad seltzer, which some interpreted as a literal happy dad: Carl.

Some students brought bananas to the bars to use them as currency in exchange for drinks — which was unsuccessful.

Cassie Roshu | Digital Managing Editor

Zoe Hubert, Chloe McCullough, Natalie D’Alto (left to right) eating the bananas they brought to fulfill one of the bar crawl’s challenges. Hubert, an out-of-town guest, was invited to SU for the weekend to experience the event.

Amid humorous accusations of cannibalism, students ate bananas and personalized their banana suits with stickers, messages and names written in Sharpie markers. They rejoiced in each other’s collective costumes, shouting banana-themed chants from dorms and apartments to cheer each other along.

SU graduate student Syanis Yarí Vargas-González and senior Gillian Marma ironed a reference to a viral Vine, “But banana bread at work dude?”, onto their suits. The two occasionally paused on the street as people scanned the QR code on the back of their suits, which brought students to the Vine.

Some students said they hope the crawl becomes an annual tradition. SU senior Chloe McCullough suggested an orange or a pickle bar crawl could be next.

Seniors especially found the crawl bittersweet and extra memorable for their last year on campus, as it brought light-hearted energy to a senior moment.

“I’m never going to be a banana again,” Vargas-González said. “You’re never going to get a chance like this again.”

Published on November 10, 2024 at 7:48 pm