There will be no free shuttles to and from the event this year.
For Numbers Fest this weekend, some students are getting pumped for the bands they’ll see, and others are scrambling to find a ride.
According to the Numbers Fest website, there will be no free shuttles to and from the event, unlike previous years.
“All transportation to/from the event is the sole responsibility of the festival-goer,” the website reads. “We recommend parking on-site, camping, or using a licensed taxi service.”
Athens Police Department Chief Tom Pyle said people attending the event are often intoxicated from pre-gaming. The department will staff extra officers along transportation routes as early as 8:30 a.m Saturday.
“We’re unsure if they’ll drive back this year because of outside parking, or if they’ll stay out there and camp, or if they’ll do just what they did for the past three or four years and just full-on march down the center of the road drunk and disappear back into the city,” Pyle said.
Pyle said attendees often walk on the highway to and from the event for various reasons.
“Because they’re drunk and don’t listen to law enforcement, and there’s so many of them,” Pyle said. “That’s essentially it. ... I’ve stood in the middle of them and they walk right past you like you’re nobody. It’s like a zombie march.”
Drunk fest-goers cause problems Uptown as well as at the event, Pyle said. In past years, students have opened strangers' car doors Uptown and tried to climb in.
“(A woman) was Uptown driving with her kids in the car and a drunk college kid opened the car door and then demanded a ride,” Pyle said. “So that stuff goes on sporadically throughout the day Uptown, and that’s why we have extra numbers out.”
At 13Fest last year, 117 individuals were arrested by the Ohio Investigative Unit.
Ohio University Police Department Lt. Tim Ryan said he is not sure whether the department will be sending any officers to The Venue, where the event is located or if the department will increase patrol on campus.
Although he said he hasn’t worked at the actual venue, Ryan said he has heard of some safety concerns associated with the event. The department’s concerns with Number Fest include intoxication, drug use and overloaded vehicles. He said sometimes people hang onto the outside of vehicles because they are unable to get a ride inside one.
“You can’t ride on the outside of a vehicle,” Ryan said. “But sometimes people try to make money by transporting people to and from the venue, so it’s just like, ‘If you can hang on, go for it.’ And that’s obviously not safe.”
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="0583d9d6-0273-11e6-bd58-1bdccc079803"}}
Tatyana Nelson, a sophomore studying sports media and management, said she wasn’t able to make it to Number Fest last year because she had a field hockey competition, but she would have liked to.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I just feel like it’s something unique to OU.”
While she’s excited about the acts that are playing, she has concerns about the safety of people attending.
“The idea is fantastic,” she said. “But in terms of safety, there are some concerns there.”
@baileygallion
bg272614@ohio.edu
