Thousands of partygoers will congregate on Palmer Street tomorrow in celebration of spring’s largest street fest, a beer-drenched block party that has grown substantially since students created the event 20 years ago.
Athens City Councilman Kent Butler, D-1st Ward, was a student when the university stopped supporting the spring fests.
“These events were held on campus, and there would be beer trucks present. So a big beer truck would show up and it would have taps on the side,” he said. “The Front Room used to have alcohol on tap, sporting events served alcohol — but that all changed.”
Butler said the university sponsored various spring events, often booking big name bands.
“The university offered a party called Spring Fest,” he said. “East Green, South Green and West Green each hosted their own Green Weekend, which was a fest of their own.”
Butler said the university-sponsored events still existed when he was a freshman in 1988, but they no longer served alcohol.
“You had to be grandfathered in when the federal government changed the drinking age,” he said. “Because the majority of on-campus students were now underage, they stopped serving alcohol at university events.”
Jerry Ski, owner and operator of Ski’s Teases, has lived in Athens for 42 years and said he remembers the university-sponsored spring events.
“Things being as they are, the students said, ‘We’re still having our party,’” he said. “There was no longer an event that encompassed a student body celebration, and that’s what the students wanted.”
Butler lived on Palmer in 1991, the year of the inaugural Palmerfest.
“It was a countermovement. The university wasn’t hosting the event anymore,” he said. “So residents of Mill and Palmer got together and said, ‘Well, why don’t we host our own Palmerfest in the backyard of the houses on Palmer?’”
Other streets followed the actions of Palmer Street residents in 1991, Ski said.
“All the other street fests seem to have gotten in line after Palmerfest took root,” he said. “Everybody has a street fest now. Even lonely little Fern Avenue with four houses wants Fern Fest.”
The first Palmerfest, however, was very different from what it is now, Butler said.
“It was really pretty chill. Most houses that got together only had a keg or two,’ he said. “It wasn’t very loud, and the numbers weren’t impressive.”
Butler said the makeup of Palmer Street was different, creating an atmosphere conducive for a backyard party.
“At the time, all those backyards were open and connected,” he said. “This was before landlords added on to their buildings, adding parking and such.”
Despite efforts, the student spring fests don’t seem to be fading with time, Ski said.
“It’s just like Halloween,” he said. “The university will pray for rain, and the police will pray for rain, but the students brave it no matter the weather. They’ll have their party no matter what.”
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