Liquor control agents arrested 37 people - including at least 29 Ohio University students - at Mill Fest on Saturday, sending a higher percentage of partiers to court than during last month's much larger bash on Palmer Street.
Liquor control agents arrested about seven people out of every 1,000 at Palmerfest and nearly 15 people per 1,000 at Mill Fest, according to arrest numbers from the Ohio Department of Public Safety and crowd estimates by local police. Athens police arrested four people and OU police arrested five, said OU Police Chief Andrew Powers.
Athens police estimated about 8,000 people - give or take 2,000 - attended Palmerfest, where agents arrested 59 people. Powers estimated that about 2,000 to 3,000 people attended Mill Fest - where agents arrested 37 people - but cautioned the length of the street made it difficult to gauge attendance. The Post calculated the arrests per 1,000 from those estimates.
At municipal court, clerks held up an 8-inch thick stack of tickets from the weekend and said more would arrive soon. It wasn't possible to tell how many citations were written at Mill Fest, but the number of misdemeanors far exceeded a normal weekend.
Powers helped arrest one woman who was so intoxicated she couldn't stand, he said, adding that Athens police arrested her for another alcohol-related offense later that night.
Overall, partiers followed police instructions and kept the fest under control. After Palmerfest degenerated into a near riot on May 9, Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi said he was happy to see a calmer party on Mill Street.
From what people have told me
that's more typical of what a fest would be like: a more chill atmosphere enjoying the nice day and the company said Lombardi.
Lombardi estimated he saw about 1,000 people on the street when he stopped by from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Powers said OU police had about the same number of officers working during both events.
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Dave Hendricks
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An undercover officer and an Athens police officer pull an unidentified man from a car and handcuff him Saturday near the intersection of Mill and College streets. Crowds outside nearby houses began booing police, who then arrested a second man from the crowd. (Dave Hendricks | Web Editor)
