Convo roof at top of list of new 8 Fest sites

Wal-Mart, Strouds Run and the Convocation Center's roof. What do these places have in common? The founder of 8-Fest, Dom Pizza, announced yesterday new potential locations for this May's edition of the Woodstock-style student concert festival.
His new location suggestions come after a bitter debate among Athens residents about hosting the fest at the Athens County Fairgrounds. Pizza suggested places closer for OU students and guests as well as professors and Athens High School students.

Mayor Paul Wheelie said he approves of each location but that he'd definitely attend if it were on the Convo's sloping roof.

"I've been to many places in Athens, but the Convo's roof is still on my bucket list," Wheelie said. "I'm also excited to defend my championship in the mud-wrestling competition."

This year, Pizza and other fest organizers practiced mud-wrestling at each location to help decide where to host the festival. The muddier, the better, Pizza said.

Pizza's three location possibilities are very different and each has pros and cons. Here they are:

Wal-Mart Parking Lot

Wal-Mart has a reputation as the city's biggest eyesore adding up to 25,000 people, alcohol and loud music couldn't make it much worse. Since Wal-Mart is a store with just about everything, guests can walk through the automatic doors to buy more alcohol, snacks and shoes (which they always lose, somehow). This location also makes it easier for people who buy tents, coolers and chairs for 8-Fest to return them to the store as soon as the party is over. Pizza held the mud-wrestling practice in the parking lot, which turned into a concrete fight and many volunteers were transferred to O'Bleness Hospital.

Positives: easy access, no mud, simple returns. Negatives: the rest of the city would have nowhere to shop for one day. (Not that there wouldn't be alternate stores to shop, just that many Athens area shoppers wouldn't know where to go if Wal-Mart were to close.)

Strouds Run State Park

Pizza's numbered-fests have been known to get muddy so what better location than a place where party-goers can jump in the water for a quick clean-up? Hosting 8-Fest at Strouds would maintain the "nature" aspect of the fests since they have been outside in the past. Instead of swimming in mud puddles, guests could enjoy the music while floating in canoes, kayaks or on top of empty kegs. Plus, as an added bonus, there wouldn't be any bathroom lines considering the fest would be held near a gigantic toilet.

"Hell, if Dow Lake works for goose shit, why not humans?" Pizza asked.

The volunteers enjoyed the mud-wrestling practice until state park officials who staff the park started shooting at what they thought was another "near riot" by OU students. (Actually, it was one part-time maintenance employee waving a rake at the mud-wrestlers, since the state parks department budget basically allows five employees to cover the whole state.)

Positives: still outside, no bathroom lines, make use of empty kegs. Negatives: drunks may drown, no bathroom lines.

Convo roof

Mayor Wheelie's preferred hot spot for 8-Fest, the Convocation Center's roof, is ideal for numerous reasons, one of them being its central location. Guests would enjoy the site, Pizza said, because it is so high they would feel like they were in the sky. Instead of trees and mud, visitors could cheer the flying birds and planes throughout the day.

Also, there is no need for a clean-up since no one ever goes on the roof anyway, and any trash will just slide off the sloped roof anyway. The mud-wrestling practice didn't go over so well considering most of the volunteers slipped off the roof and died.

Positives: no clean up; Mayor Wheelie will attend. Negatives: no bathroom, limited space, Mayor Wheelie will attend. — by Megan Workman