“Winter is coming,” and with it comes a new Winter Carnival theme: “Carnival of Thrones.” Many elements of the Carnival were planned to incorporate the theme, which was announced in the fall.
Each fall, the Winter Carnival Committee solicits recommendations for potential themes via email. The theme then determines the sculpture, the poster and arts and crafts projects, as well as all merchandise sold. Carnival committee co-chair Mandy Bowers ’14 said the committee received around 50 to 60 responses this year. Of those, she said, 20 suggested the “Carnival of Thrones” theme, beating out other proposals for Olympics or Mardi Gras themes.
Members of the committee said they had received similar recommendations last year and were happy to go forward with the idea for this year’s Carnival.
Students are excited by the theme, committee co-chair Michael Perlstein ’14 said, because of the show’s status in popular culture.
“It’s got a lot to offer in terms of visual appeal,” he said. “It’s generally a fun theme. It lends itself to adventure and the exploration of the outside.”
Bowers said that the “Carnival of Thrones” theme could have potential copyright infringement issues, but she said this has not proven to be an issue.
The theme’s specificity marks a change from the themes of the past few years, which have been broader in scope. In 2012, the theme was “Carnival in Candy Land” and 2013’s theme was “A Very Grimm Carnival.”
“It’s been a wide variety,” Bowers said. “We have been going in the direction of having broader Carnival themes because of the concern about copyright in recent years.”
For the annual competition to design the Carnival poster, which corresponds to its theme, the committee selected a design by Amy Zhang ’17, who Bowers said was the clear winner.
“I think we all agreed that this one really captured a lot of the elements that we were hoping to capture in the ‘Carnival of Thrones’ theme,” she said.
Zhang said she submitted a poster because she heard about the importance of Winter Carnival at Dartmouth, and she saw this as a good opportunity to participate in the event. While she faced the challenge of avoiding copyright infringement, Zhang aimed to capture Carnival’s scale and basic elements of the theme. The process took Zhang about 20 to 25 hours, she said.
“For the poster, you want to make it seem like it’s a big deal, like it’s something super impressive, so I tried to capture some of the scale of the event, like the way we want to portray Winter Carnival,” Zhang said. “When we’re here, we’re always battling against the elements, and this poster makes it seem a little more intense.”
Bowers said the poster is a critical part of Carnival because about half of the weekend’s budget comes from poster and T-shirt sales.
In the past, Bowers said most submissions were hand drawn, but there was a heavy shift this year toward digital design. This allowed the committee to vote using an online survey rather than the typical in-person vote.
Students interviewed said they are looking forward to seeing how the theme plays out over the weekend.
“It’s not as classic as other things, it’s not as established,” Max Deibel ’14 said. “It’s more like a pop culture topical thing than the past years have been, but I think it could be cool still.”
Members of the Class of 2017 said they are excited for their first Dartmouth Winter Carnival.
“Being a freshman, it was kind of crazy thinking of Winter Carnival,” Jalen Benson ’17 said. “‘Carnival of Thrones’ is cool because it sets the precedent for what it’s going to be for the rest of my life, and it better be fantastic because winter has come, and it’s cold.”
