Hail, hail, Halloween

High attendance and near-perfect weather conditions could not return Halloween to its legendary status, leading me to believe that Halloween has evolved into an inebriated pajama party with chaperons sitting on horseback.

High attendance and near-perfect weather conditions could not return Halloween to its legendary status, leading me to believe that Halloween has evolved into an inebriated pajama party with chaperons sitting on horseback.

Like every year, there were border-line offensive costumes (a bloodied Jesus and a group of African-American students shackled and passing out cotton) and drunken students breaking stuff (a 6'8" Incredible Hulk took down a table in Red Brick when trying to sit down). A duel between the male genitalia and the female genitalia was my favorite. But if I see another Michael Phelps costume, I may take action.

But most Court Street partiers seemed content with having a mellow good time singing in overcrowded bars, waiting in line to get food, or strolling on the bricks.

I read stories about past debauchery and rebellion in The Athens NEWS' special Halloween edition. The block party started as an unofficial annual event when OU students and their guests, most of them in costume, would collectively storm Court Street like the beach at Normandy. In four years at OU, I have never witnessed that Halloween (probably because a spontaneous street takeover, when the street is already closed, would be pretty pointless).

The combination of warm weather, an extra hour because of "falling back" from Daylight Savings Time, the beer-garden experiment and the absence of Halloween competition from Kent State (their Halloween was last week) could have a sparked a "classic" rowdy Athens Halloween. But unless I missed something, this was not the case Saturday night.

At around 1 a.m. Sunday (before Daylight Savings Time ended), I asked Athens Police Chief Richard Mayer his thoughts about this year's block party. He told me it had been calm on Court Street, but indicated that something may have happened elsewhere. He said he wouldn't elaborate, but would issue a press release in the morning.

However, if some great disturbance occurred away from Court Street, officers did not appear overly concerned. Every officer I saw travelled in a pack with four or five other officers, strolling through the crowd or standing watch on the party's outskirts.

"I thought the police were very cool," said freshman Anna Montecalvo. "But when I saw someone get arrested, like eight of them pounced in there."

If the arrest I saw at around 1 a.m. Sunday (after Daylight Savings Time) was any indication of how police were handling disorder throughout the night, it would be difficult to argue with their strategy's effectiveness.

I saw a college-age man face down on the bricks near the corner of Court Street and Union Street. Six police surrounded him and escorted him to a police car like he was Charles Manson or the Unabomber.

"I think there's a lot more police uptown, and I noticed them trying more to control it," said Matt Shisler, a senior biology major at OU. "My first year there was chaos everywhere. But it's a lot more calmed down. I hated the first years because it was too rowdy, I didn't even want to be here for Halloween. Before, I was trying to discourage people from coming, but now these past two years it has been a lot nicer."

With that in mind, here's my theory for why Halloween has evolved into the tame event it is today. Instead of an unorganized, detested street takeover, the event is now organized and accepted; thus it is more calm and orderly.

There is actual legitimate entertainment on Court Street now. For the first time, I watched the live bands.

But there have been stages for years at Halloween. What made this year different?

"It all went pretty smooth (at the beer garden)," said Tom McGuire, the beer-garden coordinator. "All in all, it went pretty well, other than a lull between 4:30 and 7, because a scheduled band didn't show up."

The beer garden was set up on Union Street, extending from near the Court Street intersection all the way to the corner of the old Baker Center building. McGuire said he estimated a maximum crowd of 300 people at one time. He said he thinks the experiment at least broke even and possibly made some money.

Chief Halloween party organizer Jonathan Holmberg Sunday afternoon confirmed that the beer garden broke even but said the final numbers won't be available till this morning.

The idea behind the beer sales was to help defray Halloween's considerable expense to the city, though Holmberg said that's a long-term goal. The first time was a tryout or experiment, he explained, to see if this is something that can be tried and possibly expanded in the future.

From talking to city and university officials Saturday night, Holmberg said, "everyone seemed to think it was a really mellow environment (in the beer garden). We're please with that."

The beer garden drew a mix of old and young throughout the day, McGuire said. When I checked it out in the early afternoon, there were only a handful of people with a 50/50 split of students and residents. In the evening, it looked like more students, but not the overwhelming majority as one might see at a bar.

Holmberg expressed satisfaction with the overall vibe of the uptown party crowd, which he estimated at around 15,000. This number doesn't include the thousands of student and guest partiers in the student neighborhoods, many of whom never make it uptown for the block party.

He also noticed more people in costume strolling up and down Court Street earlier in the afternoon. "We think people are really starting to get it," Holmberg said, referring to the potential for the block party to be a positive event.

Even the considerable number of police monitoring the party seemed to be having a good time, according to Holmberg.

As for students, all in all, their general consensus, not just at the beer garden but throughout the block party, was satisfaction. And why wouldn't they be? I defy you find me someone who doesn't have fun at a pajama party.