In 1991, a group of students became irritated by the cancellation of Springfest, a party on Ohio University’s intramural baseball field, and they decided to host a party on their street instead. That street was Palmer Street; that party was the very first Palmer Fest.
Two and a half decades later, Palmer Fest remains a cornerstone of Athens’ spring fest season. Fest season has been cited as a major reason for OU’s party school reputation — a 2014 BroBible article listed fest season as the No. 4 reason OU is “the Best Party School In the United States.”
As many students gear up for spring weekends full of day drinking, here are some do’s and don’ts for fest participants.
Don’t: skip breakfast
Especially in college, it can be devilishly tempting to forgo the most important meal of the day in order to get a few more minutes of precious sleep. However enticing hitting the snooze button may be, eating before a day of drinking is an absolute must.
It’s pretty widely known that eating before drinking helps to prevent over-drinking and hangovers. “Drinking on an empty stomach is a bad idea,” Dale Pinnock, a health and nutrition reporter at The Telegraph, wrote in 2013. “You know it, I know it, pretty much anyone who's ever had a 9-5 job knows it. And yet we all barrel merrily down the pub straight after work on a Friday with nothing more than a cup of tea and a sneaky Snickers in our stomachs.”
So, make sure you eat a little something before that 9 a.m. solo Cup of Natural Light — otherwise, you might find yourself passed out in bed by lunchtime.
Do: pace yourself
The maxim “it’s a marathon, not a sprint,” gets tossed around all the time in regards to drinking, whether it’s during a day-long bar crawl or a Wednesday night at Courtside Pizza.
However, fests are the embodiment of that phrase. It’s pretty simple: if you drink at a leisurely pace that lines up with your tolerance, you’ll be fine; if you’re doing keg stands every 10 minutes, you’ll probably be drunker than a pirate by midday.
Also, if you’re doing keg stands every 10 minutes, everyone else at that party is probably going to hate you. Just saying.
Don’t: ditch your friends
Maybe you’ve just become friends with someone who lives down the street. Maybe you’ve met someone cute who you want to hook up with. Or perhaps your breakfast has worn off and you’re yearning for a burrito from Big Mamma’s.
Don’t ditch your friends out of the blue. If they care about you, they’ll become worried, and you’ll probably get calls, texts and Snapchats asking where you’ve run off to.
Fests are full of large crowds, and staying in a group can help friends keep track of each other. If you do decide to hook up with that person or stuff your face with that burrito, let your friends know, so they can drink in peace, knowing where you are.
Do: consider liver supplements
Drinking a generous amount of liquor is taxing on the liver — that’s no secret. If you want to keep your liver at full power, there are some alternative supplements that can boost the organ’s functions. A 2015 Livestrong article suggests milk thistle, an herb used for centuries by Eastern cultures that is believed to protect the liver. Supplements of zinc and SAM-e, which is said to aid regeneration of glutathione, a liver antioxidant that is sapped by alcohol, are also suggested as possibly helpful.
Don’t: step on the sidewalk with an open container
... unless you want to be arrested and spend the night in jail. Hey, it’s your choice.
Do: follow the order of police officers
Local police officers will be, as usual, keeping a watchful eye on all fest-goers this spring. The cops are there to keep everything safe, not to be buzzkills. Therefore, if cops shut down a party, leave (unless you live there). If they tell you to calm down, calm down. And if you want to pet the police horses, just ask politely and they’ll usually let you.
Don’t: be stupid
Don’t light anything on fire. Don’t jump off a roof onto pavement. Don’t punch anyone taller than you — wait, scratch that, don’t punch anyone. Doing stupid things is a great way to get arrested, get kicked out of a party or get punched into next week. Keep your nose out of trouble and enjoy your beer.
Do: have fun.
The yards are muddy, the streets are packed, the beer is warm and foamy, and the weather is often lousy — but fest season is still tons of fun, especially if you have good friends to get drunk with and stay safe and out of jail.
