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Word on the Street: What is it like to tent in Duke's K-Ville?

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Duke juniors Julian Diaz, Erin O'Rourke and Nickhil Arayath play Yahtzee in their tent to pass the time on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.

Looking onto the patches of grass outside Cameron Indoor Stadium, it's clear Duke students in "K-Ville" love decorations, especially themed after Blue Devil first-year guard Kon Knueppel

Named after former head coach Mike Krzyzewski, K-Ville is the makeshift camping site where Blue Devils live in tents for the weeks leading up to the UNC-Duke game in Durham.  

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A Barbie tent sits outside Cameron Indoor Stadium in K-Ville on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.

Speaking of decorations, there's the "K-Ville Time KONnections" tent with the popular word game plastered outside of it. There was also “The Konfu Panda Dojo,” featuring characters from the movie but with players’ heads cropped onto them. One tent even had a hand-made chicken coop with hay lying around to match the “Kon on the Cob” theme. 

Sitting between snow and empty boxes of booze are over 200 tents like these. The Crazies camp out for weeks through the cold and discomfort for a chance to watch one of the most anticipated games of the year. And here's how they justify doing it: 

What made you want to camp out?

Sam Piesman, first-year economics major

“It’s part of the tradition. I think a lot of it is about this year specifically. We have an incredible team. Last year we lost to UNC twice, so this is like their revenge year. The team’s really good. UNC’s really bad. There’s that. No offense.”

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Over two hundred tents occupy the land outside of Cameron Indoor Stadium known as K-ville on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025.

Kareena Legare, senior statistics major

“This is my third time tenting, so I know how worth it is to be in Cameron for the UNC game. I just couldn’t lose that opportunity for my last year.”

Marianna Mavares, senior mechanical engineering major

“I’ve also never done it before and all of my friends were doing it. It’s senior year, so why not.”

What’s been the hardest part of this experience?

Piesman

“Probably just the nights. I’m from Texas so I’m not really used to the cold. So later in the night when it’s starting to hit the 30s, it’s pretty chilly. We’ve gotten a lot of wind recently, so it feels like it’s like 20 but it’s really like 32, so we don’t get grace. It just feels freezing.”

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Duke seniors Coral Lin and Laney Chaney stay warm in their tent in Kville on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. When temperatures reach below freezing students are not required to stay in their tents.

Isabella DiMeo, senior classical civilizations and political science major

“As fun as it is to hangout with other seniors, it’s annoying to be like, ‘Oh, I just had class. Time to sit in a cold tent for three hours.’”

Mavares

“When there are kids playing basketball at four in the morning and you’re trying to sleep.”

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What kind of activities do you do to pass the time while camping out?

Annika Socia, senior neuroscience major

“Honestly, I don’t ever really pull out my laptop and do work. I normally chat with people who are around like you guys or any friends who happen to be in K-Ville. Or just TikTok doom scroll for a couple of hours.”

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Duke sophomores Quinn Mair, George Donnelly and Ewan Dignon pose for a portrait outside their tent on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025 at Krzyzewskiville outside Cameron Indoor Stadium.

DiMeo

“Hot take. I do work at the tent. I am studying for the LSAT right now, so this is a really good environment to lock in and have all the distractions possible while I’m learning LSAT material.”

Piesman

“There’s a lot of time to hangout with friends. We play card games. A lot of homework. Honestly just walking around this area, like we have A Boogie wit da Hoodie concert tonight, so I was checking that out. Just kind of messing around, I’d say."

Tell me about the “tenting test.”

Socia

“We all had to take a pretty specific basketball test on all the players — obviously all their stats, but then random facts about them that includes a lot of stalking, like in-depth Instagram, TikTok, crazy stalking, which is a little weird.” 

Legare

“Now it’s fun because we can walk around campus and see the players and just know way too much information about them.”

@meganosmithh

@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com