As Ohio University students and faculty and their visitors flooded Court Street this evening, the Halloween festivities stayed relatively tame.
Be sure to pick up a copy of The Post Monday for more coverage.
2 a.m.
During the final hours of its duration, 'HallOUween' 2011 remained fairly calm.
“It’s been the smallest Halloween in years,” Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi said.
That was the general consensus of the police officers and OU employees on patrol late last night.
The acts on both the North and South stages of Court Street excited the crowd, with performances from Dave Rave and other popular Athens bands and DJs.
“Dave Rave was a particularly great act to have,” said Jonathan Holmberg, chairman of the Athens Clean and Safe Halloween Committee.
The two-man techno group is the first act to perform for an hour and a half — a full shift, he added.
Along with the the varied acts, original costumes took over Court Street, including “Wilfred” dogs, Will Ferrell-inspired elves and a wild flock of “Angry Birds.”
—Xander Zellner
12:30 p.m.
As the night went on, Court Street continued to fill with partygoers sporting costumes like "Where's Waldo," police officers and Catwoman.
As the party began to pick up, so did the number of ambulance calls.
“We have had 73 calls as of the 11 o’clock hour,” Athens County EMS responder Joel Bitters said. “I’ve been working Halloween for a while, and this is about average for this part of the night.”
—Joshua Jamerson
10:30 p.m.
As the Court Street festivities continued, local officials kept up their patrolling and reported that so far this year, OU's nationally known, sometimes-raucous Halloween celebration has stayed tame.
The party is "very quiet, nothing new," according to police officers on Court Street. The officers said they planned to continue walking up and down Court Street to monitor students and visitors.
Paramedics Greg Bikowski and Aaron Beaver said there are four dispatchers walking up and down Court and Washington streets who are there for emergencies only.
They reported that "everything is quiet compared to years past."
—Kaitlynn Grady and Sara Lowenstein
9:50 p.m.
Of all of the bizarre costumes that happened to stick out during the Halloween celebration, the group that identifies itself as the Fantasmagoric Printaloon Transformation was probably one of the most extravagant.
The group donned itself in balloon animals in the shape of nuclear explosions, waste barrels and cancer cells in a collaborative attempt to protest toxicity.
The group consisted of OU graduate students and students from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
“Any collaborative effort is a problem-solving experience. The students did a lot of work in a few days,” said Karla Hackenmiller, an associate professor in OU’s School of Art. “We’re celebrating life’s ability to rejuvenate and regenerate in spite of all of the toxic waste we are putting in the atmosphere.”
Another noticeable group on Court Street was one of activists.
At the corner of Washington and Court streets, there are two Christian groups that approached their demonstrations in two different ways.
One was on the sidewalk with a loudspeaker set up and bright signs that communicated phrases such as “Love warns of a hell that is eternal punishment. Turn to Jesus and live!!”
“We came here because the Gospel calls us to proclaim the cross, and we thought the Lord was calling us here,” said Devon Fitzpatrick, a senior at Bowling Green High School who was participating in the event for the first time.
Students had mixed reactions to the demonstrations.
“I don’t think this is the place to be doing that,” said Caroline Snyder, a sophomore studying communications sciences and disorders.
A second group no more than 25 feet away had a similar message but a vastly different way of getting it across.
“I believe in more of a love approach, a grace approach,” said Doug Owings of Delaware, Ohio. “To stand here and say you will go to hell for being in a costume (is something) I don’t agree with.”
He said his group has been gathering on Court Street for six or seven years and doesn’t like being lumped together with other, more extreme religious groups.
He added the main purpose of demonstrating to the Halloween crowd at OU is just to tell people about Jesus in a place where many people can be found.
“You go fishing where the fish are, “ he said.
—Lucas Daprile
8:20 p.m.
The Court Street block party started off like any other Halloween weekend, with cartoon characters, animals and other fictional costumes making their way between the Union Street and State Street stages.
The street remained calm during the early evening, and mounted policement have not yet begun patrolling, said several Athens Police Department officers.
A not-so-familiar parade of costumes made their way down the brick street as well. The Fantasmagoric Printaloon Transformathon, a procession of toxic-themed balloon and papier-mâché creatures put on by OU's Printmaking program and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville students, put all the other costumes to shame.
—Kelly Gifford
