Chapter 58 (cont.)

 

WILBURFEST RETURNS

 

I thought Wilburfest was done, dead, and buried. Gone for all eternity. So, when I visited UD in the Spring of 2002 (give or take a year), my jaw hit the floor when I heard some kids saying, “Wilburfest is this weekend.”

 

No, I didn’t go. But since I knew as a fact that UD was Wilburfest-less during the second half of the '90s, I was certainly glad to hear it was back. But was it the same sort of thing, with buttons and the whole deal?

 

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Ben C on Wilburfests '03 to '06…

 

I lived at 108 Wilbur Street my senior year '05 - '06, and friends lived in 110. The houses are attached and share the backyard and decks, and since we were all friends from freshman year, we treated it as one giant house.

 

There was a Wilburfest every year I was at UD. I can only speak for 2003 - 2006, but from what I gathered in my first two experiences, Wilburfest had been going strong for years prior. Wilburfests '03 and '04 were the usual mayhem, with live local bands, all houses participating and wild drinking all day from 11 AM until the Newark police broke everything up around nightfall.

 

My memories from Wilburfest '04 are best. First of all, as most of my friends were sophomores, we all lived in Ivy Hall and therefore made the long trek to Wilbur Street. Somehow during the day, a shopping cart and wheelbarrow were found and placed at the top of the small backyard hill. One thing led to another, and it became one of the rowdiest races, with a tiny girl in each and two or three drunk guys pushing the make shift vehicles down the hill into the fence as hard as they could.

 

2005 hit a snag when the kids running it got a band permit for one specific weekend. Unfortunately, due to rain, it was held a week later and somehow the Newark Police picked up on the permit discrepancy, and kicked out all the bands and arrested anyone underage.

 

2006 was the year that myself and about ten friends who lived in 106, 108, and 110 tried to bring back the Wilburfest tradition. With most of us experiencing the leftover glory days of Wilburfests in '03 and '04, we knew what we had to live up to it. After inquiring with the Newark PD about permits, we were forced to forgo live bands because of Newark's new zero tolerance rule.

 

Despite this, the local Budweiser / Bud Light rep helped sponsor the event with banners and money off kegs. Newark PD showed up early to take all of our names, and informed us that all landlords would be encouraged to evict any tenants that participated in Wilburfest. (In fact, many houses on the street now have special clauses in their leases pertaining to the fest.)

 

Therefore, it dwindled to about one or two other houses participating half-assed and our two houses (108 and 110) having to pick up the slack. In the end, we did not have any trouble with the cops, even with a live DJ going until 7 or 8 at night.

 

For admissions, from what I can remember the way we did it, was we basically just accepted money from roommates or friends that helped with the planning, but we could not charge at the door because of the heavy police presence. Also, I know I didn't pay for a cup my freshman or sophomore years. Wilburfest was more about everyone having a good time and not worrying about the money, because it was too hard to keep track of where someone bought a cup and then whose keg they were drinking from. I'm not sure about the years before I helped organize it, but we did not collect any money or have the intention to raise money for charity.

 

The final beer count for 2006 was around ten thirty-packs, numerous handles, and ten kegs. All in all, we did the best we could to keep the tradition alive and everyone who came by had a good time.

 

As for attendance, 2003 was the largest Wilburfest crowd I saw, I would have to estimate that there were at least 1000 to 1500 people there at sometime throughout the day. 2004 was pretty much the same. 2005 I'm not quite sure, since I didn't make it because of the rain delay / permit problems, but I heard there was still a descent turnout. As for 2006, the year my roommates and I threw Wilburfest, with the threatened eviction or no possibility of getting a security deposit back, attendance suffered. I would say only three or four houses on the main stretch of backyards participated. I hope that Wilburfest '06 was strong enough to keep it alive, but with the way things are shutting down, I doubt it.