Students will have to find their own transportation to Number Fest this year.
16Fest will take place Friday and Saturday at The Venue of Athens, 8003 OH-56, which is about a 3-mile walk from campus. Athens County Sheriff Rodney Smith said buses will not take students to Athens, something he found to be "kind of dangerous."
“If (people) don’t have rides and they walk and start taking different roads, we will shut down Route 56 until we get everybody where they are going safely,” Smith said.
There will be buses to Ohio State University but not to Athens, according to the Number Fest website.
In some previous years, the Athens County Sheriff’s Office closed the highway because a "zombie march" of intoxicated students and festgoers walked in the road.
Smith said he does not intend to close State Route 56, but if students flood the roadways, the department is willing to close the road.
“Our protocol is always the same: We don’t intend to close the highways, but if the students are walking and they’re in the roadway, we’re going to close it down for the safety of others,” Smith said.
Prime Social Group, the entertainment company that runs Number Fest, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
People who live by The Venue of Athens will have placards in their windows so police can let them leave, Smith said.
“I think last year went relatively the same,” Smith said. “If they need to get in or out of their houses, law enforcement is going to know they live there so they can get in and out of their residence.
N’Digo Jones, a freshman studying theater, said she plans to walk to the fest. She said she expects it to take about 30 minutes to get there.
“I just didn’t care,” Jones said. “There’s not too many people giving rides, and they’re like $10. I’m not doing that. I can just walk. I need the exercise.”
Smith said he isn’t too worried about students paying others for rides because there isn’t a specific law that bans it.
“We look at overloaded vehicles and obstructed views from vehicles,” Smith said. “That’s what we will be looking at more than someone who is giving rides for money.”
Carly McFadden said she doesn’t yet know how she’s going to get to 16Fest.
“Last year I saw that people were giving each other rides, so maybe that’s it,” McFadden, a sophomore studying journalism, said. “I’d like to know the options though.”
