Up to 5,000 costumed college students will take over a well-known residential street near campus Friday night as the annual Carlotta Street block party reigns again.
North Gate Merchants Association President Jared Loftus said the Carlotta block party has been occurring for almost 40 years and began as a small-scale party organized by Carlotta Street residents.
Loftus said laws have changed to require permits, insurance and security at the event, so the Merchants Association became involved with planning and funding in 2008.
Jay Price, local business owner and one of the event’s organizers, has been attending the block party for 14 years and said he feels that it “sold out” when the Merchants Association became involved, but added that he also feels regulation was necessary and that police presence makes the event much more manageable.
Price said the Merchants Association recognized the importance of the Carlotta tradition and volunteered to help because the event may have ceased to exist had the association not stepped in.
Price, who has helped organize the event for two years, said the block party had a permanent permit with the city until three or four years ago when partygoers injured an individual and the police were sued. The Daily Reveille reported that police shut down the party in 2007 when a woman’s car was nearly flipped by rushing pedestrians.
Loftus said the Merchants Association now funds the event’s insurance, security, permits and clean-up efforts. He said the association will have beer trucks at the event to recover some of its estimated $7,500 in expenses.
The Merchants Association has not sought corporate sponsors for the event because advertisements plastered around the party would change the atmosphere, Loftus said.
“We don’t want to change the culture of the event,” Loftus said.
Matt Deville, mass communication senior, said he’s attended the block party the past three years and he’s found the event has a “corporate element to a certain extent” because of the Merchants Association’s involvement.
Deville said the event is better with a permit than without, but added, “I’ll never forget seeing the guy dressed as Jesus get tased.”
Live music at the event is provided by bands from the neighborhood or chosen by residents of the neighborhood. Price said the lineup will include bands Eatin Disorder, Strugglebear, MotherLode, Nil and The Prophet and a few other guests.
The Force Agency, a talent buyer and music venue consultant, is assisting with the Carlotta block party. The agency’s CEO and founder Casey Phillips said in an e-mail to The Daily Reveille that the party is “a true gathering of the local community, by the community.”
Deville said Carlotta is a unique institution of the area.
“It’s something different every time,” he said.
Price described the event as “Mardi Gras in New Orleans for one day” and “an open-air Nintendo game.”
Estimates for attendance vary widely and depend on weather and other factors, but Loftus said police have no cap on admittance and expect around 5,000 people.
Carlotta Street will be closed around 5 or 6 p.m., and police will close State and Ivanhoe streets around 8 or 9 p.m. He said alcohol sales will end at 2 a.m., but the block party has no official shutdown time.
Loftus dispelled the common notion that the block party is unsafe or unruly, noting that this assumption may stem from previous years in which police were less involved with the party.
“There’s nothing quite like it anywhere else,” Loftus said.
 
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Contact Catherine Parsiola at [email protected]