Dan Feldman watched while drunken, costumed students mobbed 15th Street Alley behind the green Delta Sigma Phi house Friday night as they waited to enter the fraternity’s annual Blood Dance.
But the dance floor was already filled with partygoers, and hundreds of students had to wait outside.
Feldman, the fraternity’s president, tried to calm the crowd as rowdy students yelled and started breaking down the fraternity’s wooden fence.
Suddenly, a beer bottle thrown by an unidentified student smashed into Feldman’s face.
That’s when his fraternity brothers called the cops.
Within minutes, 19 Eugene police officers rushed to the dance on East 15th Avenue and forced away nearly 1,000 people in and around the fraternity house.
The Blood Dance was one of nine “out-of-control” parties the police’s party patrol responded to over the weekend.
Both Eugene and campus police forces issued a total of 189 citations, the majority being minor in possession of alcohol or marijuana, open container and loud noise offenses.
The trouble at Delta Sigma Phi started shortly after 10 p.m., when a constant influx of attendees caused the fraternity to stop letting people inside the dance, a charity event for the American Red Cross.
Hundreds of people had pre-purchased $5 tickets and were upset when they could not get inside.
Several people began yelling and breaking the fraternity’s wooden fence, and a handful tried to hop over into the fraternity’s yard.
“It was pretty much chaos,” Feldman said.
Meanwhile, Lobster Girl and other members of the “freak show” 999 Eyes ov Endless Dream Carnival of the Damned were confined to the fraternity’s basement. The UO Cultural Forum had hired the group of “human oddities” to perform before the dance.
Feldman told the crowd to quiet down while fraternity brothers tried to manage the flow of people.
“That obviously was futile because you can’t tell angry people to be quiet,” Feldman said. “It was approaching a riot.”
Mike Eyster, interim vice president for student affairs, arrived at the fraternity with police. Students outside were rambunctious, but those lingering left without quarreling as they typically do when cops break up large student parties, he said.
Eyster had been cruising with a police officer Friday night to observe students’ behavior in University neighborhoods – areas known for Halloween-time trouble, such as a 1998 riot that has prompted increased police patrols.
The dry fraternity did not distribute alcohol at the event, but a number of attendees were obviously intoxicated, Feldman said.
From Friday evening to Sunday morning, Eugene police officers issued 94 MIPs and 37 open container violations, while campus police officers issued 20 MIPs and seven open container violations.
Officers arrested one individual for assault on a police officer.
Hicks said six University students overdosed on alcohol, which was more than usual.
Overall, the weekend went fairly smoothly, said Eugene police spokeswoman Melinda Kletzok.
“It’s a proactive thing when you’ve got the parties in a concentrated area,” she said.
Police deploy a significant number of officers in the West University Neighborhood after several riots in the 1990s, she said.
Approximately 350 students had pre-purchased tickets to Delta Sigma Phi’s Blood Dance, but those who did not get in won’t be receiving a raincheck.
The event raised more than $3,800 for the Red Cross.
“We feel bad,” said Feldman, whose bloody face received 12 stitches early Saturday morning. “But it’s a charity, and as bad as we feel not giving people back their $5, it would be worse to take it from the Red Cross.”
Feldman said his fraternity will begin to brainstorm more efficient approaches to pre-selling tickets in the future.
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