ATHENS, Ohio — The Athens Halloween Block Party is one of the biggest Halloween parties in America.
Ohio University student Devon Carpenter was looking forward to it.
What You Need To Know
- Every year a block party in southeast Ohio brings in thousands of people to celebrate Halloween
- For the second year in a row, the pandemic is responsible for putting the brakes on the event
- Ohio University students seem to be disappointed, yet understanding
“I want to be Forrest Gump this year and then my roommate is going to be Bubba Gump,” said Carpenter, a freshman at Ohio University.
The party is held on Court Street each year and it brings in people from all over Ohio and sometimes neighboring states.
“It would have been my first Halloween Block Party because I’m a freshman,” said Carpenter.
The pandemic canceled the party in 2020 and now again in 2021.
Andy Stone, the Service Safety Director for the city of Athens, said the party has the potential to bring in tens of thousands of people.
With the delta variant now the dominant strain of COVID-19 in Ohio, and only half of Ohio’s total population fully vaccinated according to the Ohio Department of Health, Stone said the cancelation is the right move to keep everyone safe.
“We waited as long as we could to make the decision to cancel the Halloween block party,” said Stone. “We thought it just was irresponsible to have an event where it encouraged people to be in that close of quarters when the pandemic is still ongoing.”
Stone said Ohio University and the city of Athens have attempted to put in many safety guidelines with hopes of mitigating the spread of the virus.
“We've attempted to put different things in place, whether they be (an) indoor mask-wearing ordinance, we have a vaccination mandate for city employees, Ohio University has a vaccination mandate for students and faculty and staff,” said Stone. “All of those steps would somewhat be for not. We can't be talking on both sides of our mouth if we then encouraged an event that had that many people packed that closely together. And so we thought that's the reason that we really need to cancel this year.”
Some first-year college students like Carpenter are ready for normalcy.
“I was gonna have my friends come down from my hometown and, you know, do Halloween with me,” said Carpenter. “But with the event being canceled that's really unfortunate because I haven't really had that college experience yet. But there's obviously next year.”
Carpenter said while he is disappointed, he understands.
“I get it because of COVID. Like, it is still a big thing. And you gotta be safe out there,” said Carpenter.