Ohio University is known to some as a party school, with fest season being one of the most important times for partying of the year. Due to COVID-19, however, fest season has not taken place for the past two years. This year, juniors, freshmen and sophomores will all be experiencing their first real fest season at the same time. However, with all of the partying and drinking that takes place comes all of the cans, bottles, cups and other waste produced by the events.
David Riggs, code director for the City of Athens, recently became in charge of solid waste for Athens. Riggs has many responsibilities, including rental inspections, zoning permits and overseeing a solid waste team. Riggs said during fest season, there is a higher volume of code violations given out.
The city has a meeting in preparation a few months prior to any festivities. The meeting is held with representation from Code Enforcement, the Athens Fire Department, the Athens Police Department, OU, the Athens County Health Department and local state troopers. Together, they discuss planning and preparation for fest season.
The Code Enforcement office posts flyers the week before the fests on the houses on the streets where they will take place. The flyers have guidelines on what is allowed during the parties. Although the flyers are posted on the houses and on Code Enforcement’s website, Riggs wants more people to be aware of expectations.
“I have a really hard time getting that information out to the student and to the residents that are here,” Riggs said.
Livi Rose, a junior studying studio art, attended Mill Fest and Palmer Fest in 2019 and Mill Fest this season as well. Rose said fest season is always very busy with many people coming in from out of town. Rose was unaware of any official guidelines for fest season, besides the rule to not stand on the sidewalk with an open container.
Hunter Antritt, a junior studying political science and a member of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity, created an event company called 68N.tertainment, an official limited liability company that has worked with Barstool and local bars, to host parties.
Antritt said the company throws at least four events a month, with some bar events as well.
For this fest season, Antritt threw a joint party at two houses for Mill Fest, one for Congo Fest and one for High Fest. At High Fest, they sold over 1,000 wristbands.
The day of the fests, Code Enforcement will check the areas and monitor them during the day. If trash is not cleaned up the night of or early the day after the parties, another round of Code Enforcement officers inspect and write tickets for people whose trash is not cleaned up.
“Part of that is because it looks bad,” Riggs said. “And part of it is you get up Sunday morning and somebody wants to go to church, and they see all this partying debris that’s all over the place, and that makes the community look bad.”
Antritt said he has been ticketed multiple times despite following trash guidelines.
“We try really hard to clean up everything so we don’t have to get trash fines, and we still do, and I think it’s kind of ridiculous,” Antritt said “I’m going to start taking pictures from now on because we’re cleaning up everything, and we’re still getting hit with loose trash fines.”
If there are multiple offenses, a ticket is written for the most serious charge. However, if one thinks that they were unfairly written a ticket, and they can prove it is incorrect, one can contest.
Antritt has not contested any fines because he has not had any proof, but he intends to start taking pictures for evidence.
Rose said some of the parties were making an effort to contain the trash with trash bags, and one party even had a mini-pool for disposing trash.
As for Rose’s trash, she said she would carry it with her until she could dispose of it.
“I put everything I could in my fanny pack, and then if there was trash, I would throw it in there,” Rose said.
Antritt said when he throws parties, some houses have a few recycling bins, but the majority must be thrown away. There are no public recycling bins available during the fests, so most of the cans, bottles and cups become trash.
“I wish the city would be a little more proactive on helping us recycle all these things,” Antritt said. “They know we’re going to have a lot of stuff. It would be really cool if they could drop a recycling dumpster or something on the street.”
