Walking down jam-packed streets while waving hello to basketball players like Jonny Flynn and Kris Joseph. Students competitively playing beer pong on their porches. These are some of Erich Berckman’s fondest memories of MayFest.

To many seniors like Berckman, a broadcast journalism major, memories of last year’s MayFest at Walnut Park will never replace memories made on Euclid Avenue as freshmen.

As MayFest approaches this Friday, the senior class will be the last class of Syracuse University students to experience the original MayFest.

Before becoming an SU staple, MayFest originated as a day off from classes for a campus-wide event to showcase students’ academic work.

Then, in 2007, an SU student sparked the idea of a ‘block party’ through Facebook. He encouraged students to have parties on the lawns of their off-campus houses and apartment buildings off Euclid.

‘At Euclid, MayFest had a sense of a community,’ said Aaron Calder, a senior economics major. ‘Now, it’s kind of weird because the campus is split between Walnut and Euclid. You don’t really have that feeling like you did before.’

Calder’s favorite memory on Euclid was climbing the roof of a house with friends and looking out on four blocks of students partying wildly.

In April 2007, at the height of MayFest, there were more than 3,500 students lining the sidewalks, according to a 2010 Daily Orange article. Senior Matt Novak prefers having MayFest on Euclid because the streets are filled with students. He added that he will always remember the beautiful weather and the crowds of people.

‘Euclid is so much better because it feels like the entire world is there,’ said Novak, a psychology major.

In 2009, the university announced that students weren’t going to have the day off for MayFest. This angered a lot of students, University Union President Rob Dekker said. The intensity of student partying upset the local community and the city of Syracuse, prompting the event’s cancellation.

The university then named the day SU Showcase to diminish the connotation of it being a day for the students to party.

In 2010, Student Association and UU came together with the hopes to act as a voice for students and address their anger toward the cancellation, Dekker said.

‘We wanted to keep the tradition alive but have it be beneficial for the SU community and avoid any violations that could possibly occur,’ Dekker said. He added the occurrence of violations during the intense partying, such as noise complaints, on Euclid didn’t reflect well on the university.

What resulted was MayFest taking place at Walnut, Dekker said. This move created a perfect marriage of the students’ and the university’s desires.

‘Walnut creates a safer environment for students to celebrate. They don’t have to be concerned with violations or getting in trouble,’ Dekker said.

To Berckman, MayFest on Euclid is a completely different experience than on Walnut due to the larger presence of the Department of Public Safety officers. On Euclid, the police were less strict about drinking and partying. Berckman recalled that underage students had the ability to get into the parties on Euclid and said Walnut is an easier area to control underage drinking.

Calder said he believes that safety should be a No. 1 priority at MayFest.

‘I know sometimes freshmen have the tendency to go overboard,’ Calder said. ‘There are a lot of nice guys in DPS. They just want to make sure that everyone is safe.’

Although his experiences on Euclid were superior to those at Walnut, Calder said there is one major benefit to having MayFest at Walnut.

He said: ‘The fact that at Walnut the university will buy you a free beer is pretty awesome.’

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Photos of MayFest 2009 are available on The D.O. Multimedia blog.

Published on April 25, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Meredith: [email protected] | @MerNewman93