Although university officials expect Friday’s MayFest weather forecast of showers and temperatures in the 50s to put a damper on Euclid Avenue crowds, police are still planning area patrols.

This is the second year MayFest will be held as a university-sanctioned event with free beer, food and live music from 1 to 6 p.m. in Walnut Park. Crowd sizes on Euclid, where students have traditionally partied, dropped last year due to improved police enforcement, but city and university officials are still preparing for student activity in the area.

The Office of Off-Campus and Commuter Services will distribute a letter Thursday from Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner reminding students that police will continue to enforce city ordinances on Friday during the MayFest celebration.

A sheet detailing what the city ordinances are will also come with the letter, said Darya Rotblat, director of the Office of Off-Campus and Commuter Services. City ordinances commonly enforced in the Euclid area include open container violations and noise ordinances.

The Department of Public Safety, the Syracuse Police Department and Chestnut Security will monitor the Walnut event.

The tradition of MayFest began April 24, 2007, when a student started a Facebook group calling for people to party on Euclid. A crowd of more than 3,500 students lined the sidewalks, according to an article published in The Daily Orange on April 7, 2010. Classes were not in session because that day was meant to be a day off for students to celebrate their academics.

In 2008 and 2009, thousands of students continued to party on Euclid. Last year, however, Syracuse University reinstated classes on MayFest and tried to sanction it with the creation of the Walnut event. SU also created SU Showcase, an event on a separate day in May for students to display their academic projects.

This year, the size of the crowds on Euclid will depend on how police set the stage early in the day, Rotblat said, as some students will stay away if there is heavy enforcement.

‘How big Euclid Ave. gets is really dependent on enforcement, in my opinion,’ she said.

Rotblat also expects it to be a calm day on Euclid if temperatures remain in the 50s, but said the crowds will increase if the weather is sunny and warmer. More popular music and guest passes may also draw students to Walnut this year, she said.

A total of 350 MayFest guest passes, which are new this year, were also put on sale for $20 each. The guest passes will allow non-SU students to attend the events at Walnut.

Outside of the guest passes, students from SU and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry must present their university IDs to get into Walnut.

At Walnut, the event will include areas for food and beverages and entertainment. Students 21 and older who choose to drink will be given wristbands to drink in the section where alcoholic beverages will be served. The wristbands will allow those who arrive before 3 p.m. to drink a maximum of four beers and those who arrive after 3 p.m. to drink a maximum of two beers.

The day will also feature a musical performance by Hoodie Allen at 2:15 p.m. and another by The Cataracs at 3:45 p.m.

DPS will patrol the Euclid area with Syracuse police, and some campus officers will be in the area three hours earlier than usual, said DPS Chief Tony Callisto.

‘There’ll be an increased presence of uniformed staff,’ he said.

Callisto said he doesn’t expect there to be much partying on Euclid, and the kinds of large parties that happened before police stepped up enforcement last year will not be allowed. Prior to last year, many students who roamed the sidewalks with open containers were asked to put them down rather than ticketed.

Weather may play an additional factor in Friday’s Euclid crowds, which have slowed down in years past when it got cold early, Callisto said. Last spring, the temperatures reached the 70s.

Said Callisto: ‘There was a lot more potential for activity.’

mcboren@syr.edu

Published on April 26, 2011 at 12:00 pm