One policy change this year is that the event will not offer a shuttle service.
We’ve been lucky no one has been seriously hurt the last few years of Athens’ notoriously rowdy and popular music show, Number Fest.
A lot could go wrong. Police and public EMS workers don’t have to be present at The Venue, which is private property. The day-long festival’s former BYOB policy was conducive to binge drinking amid tightly packed crowds. At least that’s settled now.
Our worry this year is transportation. Number Fest’s new policy to stop offering shuttling to The Venue is problematic and seems to merely be a way for event organizers to absolve themselves from liability problems.
The catch is that this year, attendees trying to make the three-mile trek to The Venue will have to do so without the help of Number Fest’s shuttles. That could mean walking along the side of a well-trafficked road, or worse, packing people into the back of a pickup truck.
Number Fest’s organizers, Prime Social Group, already are walking a fine line in Athens. City and county officials have long been skeptical of the festival, and we’re sure many wish it would pack up and move elsewhere, or at least be more secure.
Not having shuttles makes that even worse. We don’t want to see handfuls of students in the backs of strangers’ trucks, and we definitely don’t want anyone to think he or she could drive drunkenly out to West Union Street with their peers.
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Having an ample amount of shuttles to account for the hoards of student attendees would fix that problem, even if the shuttles themselves aren’t necessarily the best solution. That way, attendees wouldn’t have to worry about the nearly hour-long walk, or squeezing into a few sporadic school buses, like in previous years.
It’s a little bit too late for an ample transportation solution, but we hope event organizers and community leaders are able to think of a quick fix to at least ensure that the roads students will inevitably trek are safe and free of reckless drivers.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors: Editor-in-Chief Emma Ockerman, Managing Editor Rebekah Barnes and Digital Managing Editor Samuel Howard. Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage.
