Fests and yOU

Written by Dylan Sams
Photos by Brooke Baldi

As a student of Ohio University, you have heard or participated in the spring fests that sprout up around campus. They’re places for large groups of people to just let go and have a bit of fun, at least that’s the hope anyway. You also know that they have come into question due to the events of Palmerfest, which consisted of a house fire, Pizza Girl, a declaration of a riot and lots of talking about whether or not the fests are something should be allowed to continue.

In the past two weeks, Athens officials have talked to OU administrators, and OU administrators communicated with Athens officials, and then they all talked to students of Ohio University and Athens community members. In that time, two relatively relaxed fests, Oak Fest and Mill Fest happened, both pretty uneventful as far as chaos goes.

The reason everybody was talking to everybody about how much of a mess Palmer was is because it could have caused great harm, and potentially injured or killed somebody if things had gotten just a little bit worse. A lot of people called for Athens to shut down the fests completely, or to call for more policing and other measures to make things safer. That is all well and good, but restrictions really aren’t what will make things better. 

Fests are only going to be as calm as the people who attend them want them to be. With this idea in mind, the only real way to make events such as these successful is to be respectful, not totally lose control and have a little decency to the community who allows us to be here as we do college stuff, and all that comes with it.