Mill Fest launched Ohio University’s Fest Season on Saturday with hundreds of people flooding the front and back yards of Mill Street.
Among the crowd, Chris MacNeal, executive director of the Southeast Ohio Hope Center, said he wanted people to know there are resources available for those in recovery or those who need extra support throughout the weekend.
“We are out here offering harm reduction materials and free Narcan and fentanyl test strips,” MacNeal said. “We do have a space available if someone wanted to come hang out and get a little bit away from the chaos.”
This is the first year the Southeast Ohio Hope Center has partnered with the Collegiate Recovery Community, and they will also be providing resources at Palmer Fest.
Fest weekends draw large crowds, creating the perfect scene for a successful fundraiser. Delta Zeta, a sorority with a house on Mill Street, sold pancakes to raise money for the Starkey Hearing Foundation.
“We actually ran out of pancakes at one point,” Vivian Dennis, a sophomore studying psychology and sociology, said. “I would say this is our biggest fundraiser of the year.”
Partying is a huge part of the fest season. However, Emma Markins, a sophomore studying dance and health administration, said there is more to fest than just going out.
As a member of Delta Zeta, she acknowledged fest season is a great time to showcase the best of Greek life through philanthropy.
“My favorite thing about fest is the opportunity to raise money for our national philanthropy,” Markins said. “It is a great way to get everyone on Mill Street and noticing that there’s a lot of good things about Greek life, like making money for our charities.”
Ava Hamilton, a senior studying political science pre-law, Alexis Cairney, a senior studying studio art, and Erin McEwen, an Ohio University alumna who graduated last semester, were out enjoying the festivities early.
“It’s honestly just about the community,” Hamilton said. “Everybody is so welcoming, and everyone becomes friends with everyone.”
McEwen said although fest weekends can provide a sense of togetherness, not everyone is inviting and friendly.
“It’s a balance, though,” Cairney said. “We’re having fun, but at the same time, our friends just left a party because they were being called slurs.”
Cairney said it is important to call out this kind of behavior because people try to get away with hate speech in party settings such as fest weekends.
“It’s about the OU community and about being with your friends and having a good time,” Cairney said. “Not spewing hate speech.”
JD Lawrence, a senior studying accounting, gave some advice to first-time fest participants.
“Everyone’s here really just to party. Normally, people are scared of walking up and going to people they don’t know, but we’re all going to the same college, we’re all here to have a good time,” Lawrence said. “Seriously, don’t hesitate to come over and just hang out for a while.”
For upperclassmen, fest season also allows them to look back on the memories made at past fests.
Madison Sagerman, a junior studying business management information systems and analytics, said she attends fests every year. She said she enjoyed being able to experience something new after her first fest season freshman year.
“I missed Mill, so my first fest ended up being High Fest, and it was just really fun … everyone was just high energy and having fun,” Sagerman said. “It was really cool to be able to see it for the first time and experience it all new.”
Elizabeth Talaga and Kaitlin Hogg contributed to this report.
