Early afternoon on Saturday, Sept. 20, the scene at the Amherst Town Houses was foreboding. Music blasted into the streets as a crowd of UMass students gathered and Amherst Police cruisers pulled in and out of the neighboring parking lots.
By 2 p.m., there was a fresh pool of Kool-aid colored vomit next to a car in the parking lot just outside the party. Every 15 minutes, the number of revelers grew by the bus load. Squashed beer cans littered the grass and shrubbery like Bud Light tinsel. About a dozen students stood on tables heavy with speakers, dancing to the bass-loaded music. The lawn in front of the makeshift stage was body-to-body with wiggling, giggling, beer-guzzling students. Some revelers took to the second floor windows of the surrounding buildings, coaxing friends and fellow partyers to let them try to land a stream of beer into open mouths from above.
By 3 p.m., there were more than 200 students at the gathering. The south side partyers continued to focus on their dancing, while the north side played outdoor drinking games—can jam, dizzy bat and Polish horseshoe among them. The party’s size had plateaued and police officers monitoring the students from the outside appeared more at-ease.
Around 4 p.m., three Amherst Police officers entered the grassy area contained by four large apartment buildings, dubbed the “quad.” The officers stood at the northwest corner of the party and observed for a few minutes, then returned to their cars in the parking lot. Moments later, two plain-clothes officers entered the party; one took photos with a primitive-looking phone. Within 15 minutes of the plain-clothes officers’ entrance, the “stage” was dismantled at the request of a uniformed officer, and the music shut off.
By 5 p.m., most of the revelers had dispersed. Officers on the scene and at the station declined to comment. On Monday morning, Sept. 22, Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone said police made no Blarney-related arrests over the weekend.
Officers on the scene did not wear riot gear. They waited until later in the day to break up the party—a point at which some of the partyers decided to head off in search of something to eat. The police seemed to wait until the students began to leave anyway and then simply helped things along.
This is a far cry from how the Blarney Blowout turned out in March.
“Halfway to Blarney,” the midway point to the UMass community’s big St. Patrick’s Day bash, began early in the afternoon amid concern from the town and the university that the party could become as rowdy as the now infamous Blarney Blowout 2014. This time, police, administration, and students were equipped with a formal review of the March happenings, which was made public last Thursday—just in time for the weekend.
The report, commissioned by the university at a cost of $160,000 and written by former Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, criticized the handling of the events. Davis wrote that the university did not do enough to keep crowds from swelling and that the Amherst Police Department was not adequately prepared to handle them. He argued that officers acted with unnecessary force and that these crowds are to be expected in a college town.
The Blarney events have been around for more than a decade. Since St. Patrick’s Day typically lands during spring break, when students are not on campus, the events began as a way for the UMass community to celebrate the holiday, though they remain unsanctioned by the university.
In contrast to the response to the festivities in March, police this time permitted students to mingle freely in and out of the “quad.” During the most recent Blarney Blowout, police barricaded the area in anticipation of the coming events, which Davis claimed then “bottle-necked” the party-seeking students into Amherst streets.
Revelers on the scene described themselves as “peaceful” and no fights or property destruction was observed. It was evident, however, that underage drinking took place; the youngest student observed at the party was a 17-year-old UMass freshman.
McMurphy’s Uptown Tavern in downtown Amherst, a popular Blarney Blowout and Halfway to Blarney destination, did not open on Saturday. As of the prior Tuesday afternoon, the establishment was scheduled to open at noon for the annual celebration, though Livingstone said he had expected the bar to open at 5 p.m. at the town’s request.
Many students at the party on Saturday had also attended the Blowout celebrations in March. Some reacted to the release of Davis’s formal review of the events last spring, saying that they were happy to see it objectively recognized that the Amherst Police acted harshly.
“They went over the top and they got caught,” said Katie Brennan, a student at UMass.
Another UMass student, Alex Stulac, said the Blarney events are cherished within the UMass community and have been for some time.
“Blarney is like a rite of passage,” Stulac said. “You can’t say that kids aren’t going to party in college.”
UMass senior Matt Brooks said he was present during March’s Blarney Blowout and that the crowd had been relatively calm until police began shooting tear gas.
“Before that it was just drunk kids throwing snowballs,” Brooks said. “I don’t think [the police] knew how to handle it.”•
