Athens Police Department may not be taking extra precautions for the potential fest.
On Friday night, students will leave class and head north of campus for Congress Fest — or maybe not.
“I have not heard of it,” Mike Roberts, a junior studying journalism, said.
Although an event for Congress Fest did appear on Facebook at one point, the event has been deleted. As of press time, no event was listed online.
Kelli Barker said she first heard about Congress Fest two days ago in one of her classes. The senior studying plant biology and geology heard of the fest when someone who lives Congress Street mentioned it was going on. She doesn’t think many people will go, because they don’t know about it.
She doesn’t plan to attend, opting to do other things.
“If I had a really close friend on Congress Street, maybe I’d go,” she said.
Athens Police Department Chief Tom Pyle said the department won’t be staffing the possible Congress Fest.
“It’s been hit or miss in the past,” Pyle said. “It’s never been a big thing.”
A Congo Fest on Congress Street was scheduled to occur during Fall Semester of 2012, according to one previous Post report.
Students created a Facebook event for the first Congo Fest in fall 2007, according to another Post report. 830 Facebook users claimed to be going, and 390 said they might go.
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The Ohio University Police Department often assists APD with events like fests, OUPD Chief Andrew Powers said. Powers said he hadn’t heard of Congo Fest, adding that there might be more officers out on Friday.
“I believe that we’ve probably got some extra people out on Friday night,” he said. “I don’t know if we actually have anybody detailed to work Congress Street.”
Roberts said he can’t attend Friday anyway, adding that since many people don’t know about it and therefore might not go, the party organizers might party harder to compensate.
“They’ll get into a lot more trouble,” he said.
But he isn’t certain.
“Maybe people do know about it other than me,” Roberts said. “I don’t know.”
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