Halloween Block Party music offers more than just entertainment, it's a safety precaution as well
In my short four years of attending the Athens Halloween Block Party, last weekend’s music stages were by far the best.
The music was diverse including jam bands, funk, rap, classic rock, EDM and Ska. There were even people moshing to Ska Shank Redemption, surely one of the best band names I’ve heard. There were more than 3,000 people in the Lokoween stage parking lot, located between Lucky’s Sports Tavern and Attractions, partying to some original mixes created by local DJs, who were throwing out free T-shirts and various Four Loko themed merchandise.
It has not always been that way. Last year I had to beg my friends to come out and see some of my favorite Athens bands, and that parking lot was depressingly empty. Yeah, Brandon “DJ B-Funk” Thompson drew a massive crowd but that’s more so because the South Stage shut down and the Mill Street crowd got bottle necked.
The two years before that it was a similar story of drunken students wondering about Uptown but not really paying attention, with the healthy exception of First Street Heat.
This year was diverse and appealed to a wide range of people, which allowed it to control the narrative of Halloween. Despite someone firing shots into the air at the end of the night, I found people were talking about the bands for days after, at times drowning out some of the flaws of the night organizationally or in terms of safety.
Music makes you feel good. Ever been at a concert and you’re just so into the music you can’t think about anything else? You look over at the people next to you and they’re jamming to the tunes just as hard as you are. When you’re in that moment it makes it hard to have thoughts of violence.
That was the idea behind the entertainment portion of the block party when Jonathan Holmberg, chairman of the Athens Clean and Safe Halloween Committee, began organizing the event. Maybe if they gave people music to focus on they’d stop rioting in the streets. So far it’s worked.
Certainly music can’t be the only safety precaution moving into the future but it’s always been an integral part of safety at the block party and it should continue to be a talking point in the future as the committee, the city and Athenians access how to move forward after Saturday’s events.
William Hoffman, Post culture editor
