The year is 1976, two years after the first Halloween block party in Athens, and Jonathan Holmberg is experiencing it for the first time. The crowd sports homemade costumes and, according to Holmberg’s estimation, a third of the people in the crowd are operating on some kind of hallucinogen. The crowd will revel in their inebriated and hedonistic state until midnight when the authorities will arrive to send them all home.
Almost exactly 47 years later, Holmberg sits on the back patio of Jackie O’s Brew Pub and told the story of his time organizing the Halloween Block Party, beginning with that initial experience that spanned decades.
The next step in his journey took place in 1984 when Holmberg graduated and moved to West Virginia for only four years before he decided to return to Athens. Upon his return, he accepted the role of fundraising director for the Clean and Safe Halloween Committee. At the time, the block party was organized by the owners of the Athens News, and they needed a fresh face to ask businesses for up to $40,000 to fund the event.
“The position required that I go around to businesses and collect money to put on the show because the city had nothing to do with it, the university hated it, but the reputation of OU was rebellious … you didn’t tell us we couldn’t do something, we just did it,” said Holmberg.
The year of Holmberg’s return to Athens also marked the first time the block party involved live music. The Athens News owned a parking lot on Court Street, which provided a private space for a band to perform without the risk of being shut down by the city.
In 1990, the stage was moved down the street to the area in front of Courtside Pizza, which Holmberg described as being “geographically incorrect.” The number of people crowding the area and the incline of the street resulted in people storming the stage and damaging equipment, so the committee was forced to plead with the city once more to allow for a second stage, an addition that wasn’t granted for another ten years.
In that decade, Holmberg became the chairman of the committee, and the Athens News was removed from the process.
“I was sick of two people who didn’t have anything to do with the party trying to dictate to us what we could do with the party,” said Holmberg.
In 2000, a second stage was added in front of the Alumni Gateway. The university president at the time was Robert Glidden, who firmly disapproved of the changes and threatened to arrest any students who intruded on College Green, according to Holmberg. Holmberg begged the university president to reconsider his stance. Fortunately, the addition of a second stage worked exactly how Holmberg planned, and the hoard of national news outlets that arrived to cover the impending riots ended up going home empty-handed.
“It worked like a damn charm, it spread the crowd, we had entertainment on both ends of town, so people were placated, they were happy, and by the end of it, they were ready to go home,” said Holmberg.
That same year, the stages were graced by filmmaker Michael Moore and politician Jesse Jackson, who had been invited to discuss the upcoming election.
After this banner year for the block party, the city was willing to work with the committee to sanction the event. Then, in 2014, Brandon Thompson got involved with the committee. Thompson and Holmberg worked together for a few years before the latter handed over the reins, deciding that after 30 years his time with the event had come to a suitable end.
Thompson accepted his new role as Halloween coordinator and is currently responsible for the music and working with the city for the activities for the party. Thompson has lived in Athens his entire life and witnessed firsthand the inauguration of the city’s involvement with the party.
“(The city) allowing the event to happen was about the most support that (the committee) got, now they’re actually putting money up to try to make it more family-friendly and inviting to everybody,” said Thompson.
Part of the event that is more suitable for families is the Honey for the Heart parade, an experience hosted by PassionWorks. The studio hosts thousands of members of the Athens community, to help create the puppets and costumes that will march in the parade.
“I witnessed (Halloween) go from not being sanctioned to being sanctioned,” said Patty Mitchell, the founder of PassionWorks.
With Honey for the Heart, which is currently celebrating its 12th year, Mitchell hopes to drive home the narrative that Halloween is a celebration of community and colorful life, not something to be afraid of.
“Let’s love it,” she said.
Christine Knisely, the president of Athens City Council, agreed with Mitchell.
“Integrating some of the early evening parade and the stage entertainment and making those a more integral part of Halloween … really kind of helped change the atmosphere,” she said.
Knisely has lived in Athens for 26 years and has also witnessed the evolution of the event, from neighborhood associations forming civic patrols to an increased involvement of litter control officers.
According to Knisely, the city has committed between $40,000 and $60,000 per year to the event, funds that help pay for safety measures, staff overtime, police presence, stage entertainment and trash pickup.
“It’s worth it … to make sure everybody’s safe and make sure we’ve devoted enough resources to it to make for an entertaining evening,” said Knisely.
One of the members of the Athens community who is looking forward to that entertaining evening is Thompson.
“(My favorite part is) being on that stage and looking out at all my OU friends and family, and OU people and Athens people, and just showing them a good time,” he said. “It’s a bunch of people together, partying in the street–it should be chaos, but OU always does it right, Athens comes out and does it right because that’s who we are.”
