It's Time To End the Mifflin Beer Blast

There will be howls and protestations from the younger set, but it’s time to put this disgusting display of drunken excess to bed. Two stabbings – one college kid stabbed in the butt, so drunk he didn’t even know it – and three cops hurt; a sea of urine and vomit; and the only reason for the annual party is that, well, that it’s an annual party.

This year’s over-the-top iteration had one of the original 1969 Mifflin Street Block Party attendees…no, not me, but the one who happens to be Mayor again….telling the media at the event he was praying for rain to wash out the party, and telling the public prints Monday morning that it’s time to put it to bed.

Amen.

The photo above was taken at the Mifflin Beer Blast in 2005. Far left is Madison Police Officer Lund; my son, Dru, is next to him, swilling a cup of some no-doubt evil brew; Dru’s best friend Chaise is kneeling in the foreground of the photo; next is Madison Police Officer Scheller, standing next to Officer Scheller is my daughter Mallory and next to her, at the right of the photo, is her BFF Brianna. I have no idea how the cops summon the patience to put up with what has become an early-party ritual of having their photos taken with the revelers.

In my on-air days, I referred to the event as the “Mifflin Street Beer Bash”, which drew chuckles from the alder representing the district, Mike Verveer, but I read in the State Journal this morning that even Verveer, longtime vocal support of the blast, has said it’s time to put it to bed.

The Beer Blast has had its ups and downs in recent years, but the gendarmerie says this year’s was the drunkest ever, and I have no reason to doubt them. A few years back some UW football player beat the crap out of somebody; the year the photo above was taken, 2005, was a fairly calm year. In 1996, it was cold; the drunks started fires in the street to stay warm; it turned into a riot (and yes, it was a riot) when firefighters came to put out the fires. The next year was tame, because strict controls were established, controls which were gradually relaxed.

There’s always been a troubled relationship between alcohol and the UW. Badger football game-day has always meant drunken revelry; the Halloween beer blast on State Street at least was centered on an “event”…Halloween…but it got so rowdy then-Mayor Cieslewicz said “shut it down” about five years ago, and then agreed to turn it into a gated and controlled event called “FreakFest”, which tamed things down considerably.

There will be angry rants in the coming days from the younger set about “the fun police” shutting down “their celebration”, as Mayor Soglin makes moves to either control the beer blast or shut it down, but the anger of the young will fall on deaf ears at City Hall. It’s an event that’s morphed into an ugly beast again, which the UW Student Association has repeatedly refused to take responsibility for or control of, and it’s time for this dinosaur to lurch into the grave or be put into captivity for its own good.