FREDFest hasn’t existed since Spring 2014. But if we, at The Leader, remember correctly, there was still quite a bit of celebrating going on in the village. We expect the same amount of celebration during this upcoming weekend.
As Andrew W.K. sing/yells in his his song “Party Hard”:
“Cos we will never listen to your rules (no)
We will never do as others do (no)
Know what we want and we get it from you
We do what we like and we like what we do
So let’s get a party going (let’s get a party going)
Now it’s time to party and we’ll party hard (party hard)
Let’s get a party going (let’s get a party going)
When it’s time to party we will always party hard.”
Basically we’re saying that just because the university officially canceled our beloved party weekend, it doesn’t mean we won’t still party.
There’s a chance that after the class of 2018 graduates — the last class that will have experienced the university-sanctioned FREDFest — perhaps the event will fade into oblivion. But until then, students will still ring in the warm weather and the month of May with festivities.
But the question remains: Did the university do students a disservice by cancelling FREDFest?
Some feel like the university wanted to wash its hands of the notorious, out-of-control behavior that happens downtown during the first weekend in May. And after experiencing last year’s event — the first time it wasn’t associated with the university — we’re not so sure it worked. Fredonia was still in the spotlight with the likes of The Buffalo News and channel 7’s WKBW onsite during that weekend.
“They streamed in groups of five, 10, sometimes more onto White Street Friday afternoon, as if drawn by magnetic force,” read an article from last May in the Buffalo News. “By 4 p.m. hundreds of college students had gathered on front lawns to enjoy the warm sun and cold beverages.
“Some chugged beer from a funnel, while others used a wiffle bat,” it continued. “In another drinking game, participants hammered nails into a block of wood between swigs.”
And WKBW’s article and videos highlighted the 52 arrests — almost all of them non-students. The university was still asked to comment in both of these reports; Fredonia was still on the news.
It’s sad to think that the university eliminated the fun on-campus FREDFest events and activities. While it still had some things available to students that weekend, it wasn’t any sort of celebration the way it used to be or the way it was happening in the village. Students were left to choose between going downtown to celebrate or staying on-campus and forgoing any sort of festivities.
We, as students, understand that wild, crazy, destructive and unsafe behavior needs to stop. There are trash pickups already slated for next Sunday to try to take care of the aftermath. People have gotten seriously hurt during FREDFest, and we would never deny that.
But was cancelling FREDFest the right thing to do?
This weekend, we can expect to see a children’s carnival happening downtown. Was that really a safe choice? In attempts to wipe FREDFest parties from existence, were students — and now children — put in a more precarious position?
All we know is that students — especially graduating seniors — will “do what we like, and we like what we do” this upcoming weekend, whether we’re allowed to call it “FREDFest” or not. But we urge everyone to be safe and smart; you don’t want to end up in our police blotters, do you?