Despite temperatures in the high 30s and occasional snow flurries, red solo cups littered the streets and music blared along Euclid Avenue on Friday afternoon – evidence of this year’s MayFest.

‘There’s been ugly MayFests before, and people have stuck it out,’ said Beau Wollens, a senior entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major.

Much of Friday’s MayFest celebration was confined to the 400 and 500 blocks of Euclid Avenue. There were no problems with traffic or pedestrians and no roads were blocked off. But the cold weather did lead fewer students to turn out than in previous years, which caused some students to dub this year’s MayFest as disappointing.

Wollens said this year’s MayFest didn’t compare to that of years past. He said although he appreciated the willingness of the university to give students a day to celebrate festivities at Walnut Park, MayFest has not been the same since it became a university-sanctioned event.

Though Euclid wasn’t mobbed, there was still plenty of activity; students loudly yelled ‘Happy MayFest’ to partiers they passed.

A house on the 400 block of Euclid posted a sign that read ‘U Honk, We Drink.’ A number of trucks drove by and honked repeatedly, prompting elated screams from the students followed by the clank of bottles and plastic cups.

A woman with crutches sat in a Target shopping cart, recruiting a group of friends to push her along so she wouldn’t miss out on the MayFest activities.

Department of Public Safety Chief Tony Callisto said the cooler weather put a damper on outdoor activities and caused many students to partake in the festivities inside their homes on Euclid Avenue. He said when he was patrolling, there were no more than 25 people outside at any given location.

The Syracuse Police Department began patrolling Euclid Avenue at approximately 10 a.m. and continued patrolling throughout the night.

As of 6 p.m., an SPD officer reported only one noise reproduction violation.

Greg Durante, who graduated from Syracuse University last spring, called this year’s MayFest a disgrace. He said Euclid Avenue was empty compared to his freshman and sophomore years when the weather was about 70 degrees. The emptiness made this year’s MayFest the worst Durante had experienced.

Many, like Durante, attributed the weak MayFest celebration on Euclid Avenue to the cold weather and the university’s involvement in the Walnut Park event.

‘It takes a little bit of the culture of the day out of the hands of the students,’ said Aaron Gittleman, who graduated from the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries in December.

Gittleman described Euclid Avenue as tame, but he said he didn’t believe Walnut Park was much more crowded. He said the beer area of the park seemed busy, but otherwise the park seemed relatively uneventful. Gittleman said he believed more students would come out to celebrate later in the day.

Others, like senior political science and sociology major Bryan Sakakeeny, said although the university took control of MayFest in 2010, he didn’t feel the event had changed much since.

‘Everyone wants to be on Euclid anyway,’ he said.

The Women’s Rugby Football Club chose to take advantage of the MayFest activities by holding a bake sale on Euclid Avenue in efforts to raise money for the team’s tournament expenses.

Victoria Weitgenant, a sophomore communications design major, said the team decided to hold its fundraiser on MayFest because students are always heavily intoxicated and would want something to snack on.

‘By the time everyone gets pretty ‘schwasted,’ no one wants to make it all the way to Walnut,’ she said.
Weitgenant and a few of her teammates sold baked goods they had made themselves the night before and hamburgers hot off the grill. As of 2:30 p.m., the women had sold treats to about 50 people.

Students left few aluminum cans behind on the street, thanks partly to Donald Finner, a Syracuse resident who collects the cans to supplement his income.

Finner said the cans are worth 5 cents each, and he usually makes about $100 by the end of MayFest. But he said he believes he’ll make less from this year’s MayFest, as it was not as busy as ones he had seen before.

cffabris@syr.edu 

Published on April 27, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Casey: cffabris@syr.edu | @caseyfabris