Every year as October draws near, city council passes resolutions that attempt to tame the beast that is Athens’ Halloween celebration. While the holiday-specific resolutions haven’t changed since 2006, neither have the arrests.
The scope of involvement from authorities, faculty and volunteers, coupled with Court Street restrictions, have provoked a more civil and controlled celebration over the years, said Ohio University Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi.
“Students feel like it’s relatively tame now,” Lombardi said. “What I hear and what I sense is that it’s so codified, there’s so many police and law enforcement and so much structure to it that it’s kind of tamed it down.”
The notorious Uptown celebration on Court Street originally began in the mid-70s as an “illegal street take-over,” but has since become significantly less rowdy due to restrictions created around 20 years ago, said City Council President Bill Bias.
During one instance in 1985, fest rioters caused $350,000 worth of damage when a fire broke out at Peden Stadium over Halloween weekend.
“When I started working (on council), there were people lining up wanting to kill it,” Bias said. “And I’m not talking a couple people; I’m talking a couple hundred. We had to do something differently.”
The changes put in place to alter the nature of the event have been recycled since 1989, and include closing a section of Court Street from Mulberry to Carpenter Street and employing police to patrol the area. Council has also allowed vending, peddling and soliciting in designated areas on Court Street and have suspended the enforcement of the Athens City code and unnecessary noise.
“We were going to take it to where we closed off the streets for it, provided for porta-johns, parking, a band stand—to where there is more of a festival attitude,” Bias said.
At last week’s meeting, councilman Kent Butler discussed plans to reestablish a glass-free drinking container zone on Court Street and adjoin the sidewalks between Union and State Street, both ordinances that are nearly five years old.
“The ordinances are put in place to ensure safety within the community,” Butler said at the Sept. 6 council meeting. “They’ve been worked on with the Safe and Clean Halloween Committee over the years (and) the mayor’s office, the police department have had input on this.”
At last night’s council meeting, members approved the glass-free container measure, as well as four other Halloween-related ordinances.
Except for last year’s Halloween celebration, arrest totals haven’t exceeded 100 since 2000.
Though the party has come a long way since its riotous beginning, Lombardi said he still has serious concerns about the event.
“I’ve seen someone’s house burned down to finding students in the bushes laying in a pile of their own vomit,” he said. “It is tamer, but it’s not like nothing goes on —there’s still a lot of negative outcomes, maybe just fewer than you would anticipate for how many people are in town.”
Bias agreed that there is significant risk involved with the event; however, he said that there is no possibility of ever eradicating it.
“People think the more we fight against it, the more we make it look worse, the sooner it will go away,” Bias said. “I’m sure the people that deal with it every year are pretty sick of it, but the idea of getting rid of it never worked.”
Despite the potential dangers, Bias said that he still encourages students, guests and residents to enjoy the occasion.
“I hope that the focus of the event does stay uptown where people put on costumes, listen to the band for a while, drink a few beers, get a little goofy and call it a night,” he said.
