Fest season kicked off on Milliron Street.
At the beginning of Milliron Fest, the action was mostly contained to the porches of the people who live on the street, but later in the night the crowds started to grow and take over the sidewalks.
“The Athens News reported that MillFest would kick off fest season. That’s bullshit. We’re putting Milliron back on the map,” Austin Pedraita, a junior living on Milliron, said.
At about 4 p.m., one guy belly-flopped into a puddle in order to earn beer from his friends and a police car drove down the street.
“Milliron is great because you can hang out with people you actually know but don’t see everyday,” Kyle Thompson, a fifth year senior studying integrated science education, said. “It’s a nice atmosphere whether you’re drinking or not. People are about to buckle down and study for finals so it’s nice to have fest season to take some of the stress away.”
Andrew Sanders, a senior studying history, said he and his friends are checking the IDs of the people who want to drink alcohol at their place. One of his roommates was recording the action at their party with a store bought babydoll with a GoPro strapped to it.
“Baby Carlos is a store bought child, but he’s only two weeks old and pretty good with letting us pour shots into his mouth,” Sanders said.
Down the street, Monica Marcotte, a junior studying psychology, played with her friend’s dog Remi.
“Remi is a party animal,” Marcotte said. “She loves to socialize and people love her underbite. Sometimes her owner carries her around in a baby carrier.”
As it got later in the night, more people started coming to the street.
“I came down because I was just curious about the social scene I’m going to be encountering when I’m 21,” Ben Saulnier, a sophomore studying audio production, said.
At about 7 p.m., everything was still “under control,” the weather was holding up and they were surrounded by great people, Max Reichert, a junior studying marketing, said.
DJ Mung and DJ Black Rabbit were both on the street, but DJ Mung packed up after two and a half hours because the speakers were needed at a new nightclub on Stimson Avenue. Originally the speakers were set up closer to a parking lot but the police told them to move.
As it got darker, more people came in and crowded around the buildings, but the biggest crowd was around DJ Black Rabbit.
"There's a lot of people out here because it's finally warm enough to get away from the bars. It’s spring and there’s not many cops around, so it’s a great time," Sam Neff, freshman studying finance, said.
At one point, a man slammed a beer into his head three times, bit it open and drank it.
“That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. The one guy told him that if he did something really cool he would get him on camera so he just did it,” Connor Childs, a freshman studying health service administration, said.
At about 10 p.m. police started patrolling the street and keeping a closer eye on the fest.
@KyraCobbie
