Weather Final (Beer Gardens)

As the streets of Oshkosh were soaked with rainfall on Friday night, student attendance at one of Oshkosh’s traditional end-of-summer events became watered down as well.

Beer Gardens, a no-cover-charge tent party located directly across the college campus at Kelly’s Bar, has become an annually attended party for some students. As clouds loomed overhead, however, this year’s garden party lost priority with those looking to keep themselves dry.

“I like a cold beer as much as the next guy, but I don’t want to go swimming just to get my hands on one,” said Ryan Steffel, a 22-year-old senior at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. “I wanted to go, but after it started pouring out, I decided just to find a party indoors.”

As it turns out, Steffel wasn’t the only one who decided to forgo the trek to Kelly’s party tent located off of Wisconsin Street.

One bartender working at Kelly’s, Brandan Hish, 25, thought there were significantly fewer people at Beer Gardens this year as opposed to last spring’s end-of-the-year version. Predictably, the poor weather was blamed for the unwelcome change. “Friday wasn’t that bad,” Hish said. “The weather didn’t kick in till later. I mean, Saturday and Sunday were pretty crappy out. It discouraged people from being in the tent by the band.”

This “crappy” weather, as Hish called it, was in direct contrast to the sunny skies and comfortable temperatures that students initially enjoyed as they returned to campus. According to the National Weather Service, temperatures dropped quickly from the high of 80 degrees on Wednesday, the first day of classes, to a chilly average of 56 degrees on Saturday.

The cold air and heavy rain didn’t discourage everyone who wanted to attend, however; as many Beer Gardens faithful still huddled under the tent with their beers in hand. “It wasn’t that big of a deal because we were under a tent,” Michelle Laabs, a 21-year old college student, said. “There was still quite a few people there; enough to make it fun,”

Regardless of student attendance being affected by the weather, safety has always been a priority at events like Beer Gardens. However Lt. Dennis Nasci reported that the University Police made no changes to the way they had originally planned on monitoring the event. “Weather is a guess,” Nasci said. “We didn’t add anything more or less.” Nasci then explained that the wet conditions didn’t have much affect at all on the night from a law enforcement point of view, saying only that it might have helped deter people from running around on the street.

Despite the unpredictable weather of late, Winger’s Bar at 120 Wisconsin Ave. will be throwing a fall Beer Garden party of its own on Saturday, Sept. 16. In addition, according to Hish, Kelly’s Bar, the self-proclaimed “home of the original Beer Gardens,” will once again be having their end-of-the-year version despite this weekend’s cold, wet and forgettable celebration.