Trick-or-riot: The history of Halloween in Athens
By Jackie Zimmermann, Staff Writer
October 26, 2007 | 1:24 p.m.
On Oct. 31, a group of costumed partygoers surrounded a semitruck and prevented it from making a delivery. That fateful night in 1974 has been both celebrated and criticized as the birth of the Halloween party on Court Street. Since then, the party has overcome the hesitance of the city and the university and has been nurtured into the notorious, massive annual street party.
The ‘70s: The formative years
The 1970s were rocked with many tumultuous events. There was the Vietnam War, countless protests and, of course, the birth of the Athens Halloween party. The early years of the event were met with much opposition from the police. However in 1976, the mayor of Athens, Donald Barrett, was photographed with some of the students and forbade the police from interrupting the festivities. His action proved quite significant. Every spring quarter in the early ‘70s, the campus was plagued with bloody riots and confrontations between the students and the police. Because Barrett claimed that the festival should not have been broken up by the police, he sent a subtle message to students that peaceful demonstrations could be allowed.
After having a few years of impromptu parties, the city and the university attempted to sanction the event in 1977. The street was closed for the official celebration, and the university organized events including an appearance by comedian Bob Hope, a costume contest and a performance by the Marching 110. The city also organized the event in 1978 but was immediately met with discontent from the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). Officers expressed concern over the extra force needed to control the large crowds. That year proved to be one of the largest celebrations to date, and both the university and the city stopped supporting the festival in the following years.
To try to discourage people from attending the now illegal uptown celebration, the university planned a Halloween party in the Convocation Center. However, that year marked the birth of the annual Halloween T-shirt. As a form of protest, a street vendor started selling neon-orange T-shirts that read “If God intended Halloween to be in the Convo, he wouldn’t have put it on Court Street.” While some attended the Convo party, they left after the band performed and joined the rest of the student body uptown for the street takeover and block party.
The ‘80s: Community action
The 1980s marked a decade of active community involvement with the event. In 1980, a group of bar owners independently served alcohol only in paper or plastic cups in order to prevent “projectiles” from making it on to the street. In 1981, students also started taking an active interest in regards to deterring a large, dangerous crowd on Court Street. After a failed attempt at creating a Student Senate-sanctioned event uptown, South Green and East Green created their own mock Court Street festivals. The greens had live bands, vendors, beer (the drinking age was still 19 in Ohio) and contests. Many attended the parties, but they also participated in the illegal uptown street party as well.
In 1984, area business owners created the Clean and Safe Halloween Committee, which raised over $1,000 to pay for portable toilets for the event. That year was also when the infamous Lil’ Bo Peep rumor began. It was claimed that a student in a Lil’ Bo Peep costume would conduct a mass murder the night of the celebration. Although the night went without incident, the rumor has managed to resurface every year since.
Throughout the ‘80s the Clean and Safe Halloween Committee provided numerous services to the festival including the portable toilets, after party cleanup, live entertainment, costume contests for kids and free transportation from the newly appointed parking spaces at the Athens Fairgrounds. While the university and city tried to claim that the party was a bigger burden than benefit, many of the residents supported the festival and welcomed the extra uptown business. Even so, the city council refused to officially close the street for liability reasons. Despite all of its success, the Clean and Safe Committee stopped in 1988 after four years of hard work with no payoff or help from the city. The end of the ‘80s was also marked with the raised drinking age, which resulted in more arrests for underage consumption.
The ‘90s: Organizing the chaos
In 1990, the city finally realized it could do more good than harm by officially closing the street for the celebration. The following years were met with more police appreciation of the event and a tamer crowd. However, even though the crowd grew slightly tamer, it also grew larger. In the ‘90s police officials and community members finally started to claim similar crowd estimates, averaging at about 25,000. In 1996 mounted guards were used for the first time, and it was generally agreed by both students and police that the horse cops seemed to make a difference when calming the crowd.
The ‘90s also marked the growing trend of indecent exposure, particularly from the apartment windows on Court Street. To help control the Halloween party in 1998, the university created two rules to help minimize out of town contributors: It limited the number of guests residents in the dorm could host and also prohibited parking in university lots. Though the rules were met with some opposition, they did seem to make an impact on the festivities.
2000: A new millennium of mayhem
By 2000, the party had reached a level of calm that continued for a few years. However, in 2002 the party was not only large, but it also produced more reports of violence, including one rape, as well. In 2003 the festival was marred by a multiple stabbing, attempted car theft and numerous fires. The Athens Police and OU Police Department sported riot gear in order to help force the crowds to return home. The preceding years were met with several ideas to try to calm the celebration, including fencing in Court Street and charging the residents money to host their limited number of guests.
“That’s just a scam to make extra money,” sophomore and residence hall habitant Casey Smith said in regards to the guest fee. “$25 seems like a lot.”
Even so, Smith said that he did feel like the celebration benefited from more city and university involvement.
“I don’t know if a bunch of kids taking over the street could really put [the party] on,” he said. “I don’t really want to see Court Street destroyed.”
Having costume contests might help bring back the spirit of Halloween though, he continued. Junior Sarah Shoup is from Athens, and she agreed that the level of creativity and actual Halloween décor has been lost in recent years.
“It used to be cool and have a lot of creativity,” she said. “Now it’s just something to observe instead of something to take part in. Everyone just gets drunk. It’s not even about Halloween anymore.”
Who knows what the future holds for Halloween. Though it seems to be fading slightly in recent years, longtime Halloween supporter Bruce Mitchell summed up the general attitude toward the event at the 1990 ribbon-cutting ceremony that closed off the street. “Halloween in Athens,” he called, “May it last 100 years!”
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