If you’ve lived in Athens for a single October, you know well the buzz around the annual Halloween party uptown. It draws crowds of 10000+ people yearly – up to 30000 in past years! Ohio University spends nearly $100k each year for event security, and the City of Athens pulls in police forces from surrounding towns to help manage the mega crowd crushed into just a few blocks. Which includes, of course, our beloved police horses!
Halloween parties uptown have been reported in local papers since 1940. And like many fest-style events in Athens, HallOUween was born when a party got out of control and everyone just went with it. The “first” Halloween Block Party happened in 1974 when the costumed partygoers blocked Court Street to traffic for several hours. The town leaned into it and by 1977 voted to officially close traffic on Court for the block party.
But then everyone got drunk and dozens got arrested, and so in 1978 both the city and the university pulled their sponsorships. Which, as we can gather from the 25000+ people that show up yearly for this crazy event, had exactly zero effects on the trajectory of the block party. It grew exponentially through the ‘80s until the city resigned itself and decided to officially endorse it again. Since 1984, the Athens Safe and Clean Halloween Committee has managed the event.
Mishaps & Mysteries of Athens Halloween
While the block party is inarguably a positive mark in the fabric of Athens, it hasn’t been without its flaws:
1984: A rumour swirls that an escaped mental patient dressed as Little Bo Peep was planning to commit a mass murder. 30ish people were dressed as her that year. Gratefully, none of them committed mass murder.
1985: Somebody lit a fire a Peden that lasted 6 hours and caused over $30k of damage. They were never caught.
2002: Police reported the most unruly and violent crowd yet, and at least one r*pe was reported.
2003: Several stabbings, car theft and the famous couch fires happened as rioters tried to flip police cars and threw bottles at police. 2003 is why no one’s allowed to have couches on their porches anymore.
Luckily, since 2003 people have become much less violent, and now the majority of arrests are made for underage drinking, serving minors, and infractions resulting from public drunkenness. The majority of these arrests are almost always out-of-towners. HallOUween took a COVID break in 2020 and 2021, but it’s been back and in full force since 2022. Get the details on what to expect this year at the official site: https://athenshalloween.com/.