Brent Road Crowd Dwindles

Only about 800 people turned out for the block party Saturday night, and most spent the night sitting in driveways drinking beer while police cars slowly cruised down the street.

Brent Road is a shadow of its former self. At the party's height in the 1990s, thousands of people from all over the state crowded the street, loud music played from windows and almost every house had at least one keg of beer.

Starting last year, the Raleigh Police Department, operating with other state and area law enforcement agencies, began a heavy crackdown on the celebration -- aided by a Raleigh ordinance allowing police to break up a party with loud music and arrest its participants.

As of 1:30 a.m. Sunday morning, police made 17 arrests, mainly for underage drinking, and issued 133 citations, mostly for traffic violations. Updated figures were not available from the Raleigh Police Department on Sunday.

Several N.C. State students said they realized the police were only doing their jobs but blamed the decline of the Brent Road Party on the officers' presence.

Dick French, a N.C. State junior from Spring Hope, has gone to the Brent Road Party for the past three years.

French, who was sitting in the driveway of a friend's house, said the party kept getting worse and worse. "It used to be such a phat party," he said. "Now all the cops have everyone on pins and needles.

"It's the end of a tradition."

But some N.C. State students were trying to launch a new tradition, the Crossroads -- an alcohol-free event much like UNC-Chapel Hill's Fall Fest.

The event, which also took place Saturday night, featured laser tag, a virtual NASCAR game and a series of free concerts by bands including Far Too Jones and Naughty by Nature.

James Reed, a N.C. State senior who helped organize the event, said the event attracted students from other system schools, including UNC-CH. He said the event was not meant to replace Brent Road but offer an alternative.

Blair Roark, a N.C. State sophomore from Winston-Salem who went to both the Crossroads and Brent Road, said Brent Road is on the verge of becoming a campus legend. "You hear about what it used to be like, and it's sad because it will probably never be like that again."

Oktay Rifki, a N.C. State senior from Morrisville, said Brent Road served as a tradition linking N.C. State students regardless of when they went to school.

Rifki said he felt sad for all the younger students who would never know what Brent Road truly was like in the past. "Look at this place," he said, gesturing to a street populated only by officers. "Brent Road is already dead, the cops are the killers, and we're the mourners."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.