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Begun
in 1974 by some surly costumed OU students
out to score an ice cream cone by halting
a Baskin-Robbins delivery truck on Court
Street, the mini-Mardi Gras street takeover
that is Halloween in Athens has continued
annually more or less consistently despite
a series of repressive city administrators
and overzealous liquor-control agents.
The
latest challenge to gleeful anarchy in the
streets and a continually overextended police
force is the idea of fencing the party and
charging admission, an idea popularized
by the example of Madison, Wis., who, in
2005, successfully diminished and controlled
the normally oversize and belligerent crowd
of Halloween visitors to that college town.
Whether or not Madison profited from the
endeavor is a matter for debate, but so
far Halloween in Athens has remained the
pseudo-chaotic, bar-hopping, Court Street-strolling
affair that it always was, with the inclusion
of bandstands at either end of Court Street
and city-sanctioned street vendors. |
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This
is the definitive history of Halloween in Athens beginning
in 1974, when the street takeovers began in Athens on
Halloween, and ends on the present day. Continue
>> |
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| 1982
“It’s too big and too out of hand.”
— David Brennan, Athens County
Tourism director when asked if his office needed to
get involved with organizing Halloween, Sept. 30, 1982,
as quoted in The Athens NEWS
1988
“The Students Responsible Halloween Committee
wishes a happy Halloween to the residents of Athens,
and a heartfelt ‘trick or treat’ to Mayor
Sara Hendricker.”
— Michael Mastrino, president of
the committee, reacting to the mayor’s action
stopping the group from erecting a stage on Court Street
1999
“Much to the dismay of the local elected officials,
visitors from every corner of Ohio navigate their way
to Athens and for a single night occupy the plethora
of uptown bars in an effort to appease the pagan gods
through drink and raucous behavior. Sort of like cicadas,
only with beer.”
— Matt Toledo and Dave Riesbeck,
former writers of The NEWS’ Athens Music Scene.
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