20 Years Later: How “Panic in the Streets” was almost prevented
In 1998, Athens Mayor Gwen O’Looney stepped on to the stage at the bottom of Washington Street and looked out at a crowd of over 100,000 people who came to see the town’s very own Widespread Panic.The enormous gathering was more than double what she had expected.
Always the optimist, O’Looney gave a speech reflecting the crowd’s positive energy but ended with a cry for peace and safety.
“You have made history. This is the largest CD-release party ever. Don’t hurt my town!”
April 18 of this year marks the 20th anniversary of the now-legendary “Panic in the Streets” album release party held in Athens, Ga.. Somehow, this small southern town was able to jump over hurdles and put on a concert that attracted people from all over the world and did so on only two months notice.
Today, the event is a revered as an incredible example of urban planning, and its legacy would go on to change the cultural topography of downtown Athens.
In February of 1998, Widespread Panic approached Mayor Gwen O’Looney and the Athens Downtown Development Authority (ADDA) with the idea of putting on a special show for their hometown to celebrate the release of their first ever live-album “Light Fuse, Get Away.”
To O’Looney, this was a dream come true.
When the Summer Olympics came to Atlanta two years prior, Athens was selected to host a number of events such as soccer and volleyball. In order to provide entertainment to the Olympic crowds, the town spent a lot of resources to develop an electrical and sound system that could support a large gathering downtown. Fearing that College Square at the corner of Broad Street and College Avenue would be too small, authorities elected to have the system put in place at the corner of Washington Street and Pulaski Street. Unfortunately, no major entertainment event took place in Athens during the time, and the system would wait two more years before it was put into use for the first time by Widespread Panic.
When the band approached O’Looney with it’s idea, she was ecstatic. it was finally an opportunity to use this state-of-the-art broadcast system that had laid dormant.
However, the band wished the host the events in only two months, and O’Looney, along with her peers on the ADDA, had a number of obstacles to overcome while planning the show.
First, the event had to be approved by other local officials such as the Athens-Clarke County Commission, ACC Police Department, and authorities in the surrounding counties.
According to the O’Looney and fellow ADDA member Ron Schwartz, the ADDA was in favor of hosting the event, but making the show free to attend, frightened the local establishment.
The officials of Athens and the surrounding counties wanted to ensure that sufficient law enforcement officers would be available and that certain security measures would be put in place. They also wanted to be assured that their resources would be accounted for and used wisely.
The authorities wanted, “to make sure it was reimbursed in a way that was fair and could ensure the level of safety we all wanted.” O’Looney said.
The ADDA took a number of steps to ensure the event would be safe and controlled. They borrowed police officers from the surrounding counties, implemented rolling checkpoints, and received direct support from the GBI.
“I’m sure Chief Lumpkin [ACCPD Chief] canceled all leave for every officer that could be there. You had the ACC department, the sheriff’s department, and the GBI played a major impact coming over here,” said Schwartz.
The second concern was money. Outside of the ADDA, local authorities were wary about spending taxpayer money on an event that could jeopardize the safety of their citizens.
According to the AJC, the ADDA had agreed to put in $16,312 that would go towards the law enforcement budget, but that figure was far short of the total cost which included production and public services. Widespread Panic’s label Capricorn Records agreed to put in an additional $38,700 to help cover those costs.
Still, the budget was far short of where it needed to be to host an event of this size.
Hearing that the event was still in jeopardy with only two weeks to go, Macon Mayor Jim Marshall called the band and proposed they move the concert to Macon, Ga. free of charge.
This move prompted the band, who was adamant the event take place in their hometown, to pay an additional $25,420 to keep the show in Athens bringing the total cost of the concert to over $80,000.
“They kept upping the ante,” O’Looney said. “We would explain [to the commission] that it was going to cost this and this and they would say ok… but then they’d come back and say oh no that’s going to cost this and this.”
After constant back-and-forth between the band, the ADDA, and other authorities; the office of the county manager recognized the total cost and gave final approval on April 9, just nine days before the show.
In addition to playing politics, the ADDA had to plan around a number of other events taking place in Athens that weekend.
A local high school had already planned to have their prom at the Classic Center on the other end of downtown, and the UGA baseball team had a double header on the same day. However, an irate mother and her daughter’s wedding would prove to be biggest obstacle to plan around.
Oby Dupree, a long-time Athens resident with significant connections to the town, had planned for her daughter’s wedding to start at the same time as the concert at Athens First United Methodist Church, just two blocks away from the stage.
She began talking to reporters and petitioning city officials to move the event to another location, but after speaking with members of the band’s management team, who did not want to intrude on her daughter Mary Carroll Dillard’s special day, the two sides were able to come to an agreement.
According to the Augusta Chronicle, the band postponed the concert until 8 p.m., and the ADDA gave the wedding party exclusive use of a downtown parking lot as well as a police escort to and from the church.
With all scheduling and budget questions finally put to rest, the week of the show arrived, and so did the masses of people.
Initially, attendance was estimated to be around 30,000 people. As the concert date approached, those estimates grew to around 50,000 people. When the day finally came, the GBI estimated that over 100,000 people were in attendance, a number no one planning the event expected.
Widespread Panic fans came from all over, some as far as the Netherlands, to see the band play in their hometown. However, a lot of those in attendance were just young people looking for a fun experience.
“There was a vibrancy in town that was really a lot of fun,” said Sara Freeman, who attended the concert and now serves as a staff member at UGA. “It was just one of those things where it was the place to be.”
Despite all of the chaos, there were no significant arrests or injuries during the event.
“I don’t know how they did it but everything went smoothly. I didn’t hear of any incidents. No one came back to the ADDA and said that was bad. It was a huge success,” said Schwartz.
How do 100,000 people gather in one place for an intense jam concert and nobody gets hurt? O’Looney believes it’s because of the type of people Widespread Panic attracts.
“I saw Widespread Panic fans as people who were peacefully experiencing life. I don’t see them as problems. They are not the Hell’s Angels. Violence is not their thing,” she said.
The success of the event left a legacy on Athens and nationwide that can still be felt today.
Athfest, an annual three-day music and arts festival held in Athens, follows a similar model. While not nearly the size of “Panic in the Streets”, the main stage is in the same Washington Street location making use of the improved electrical system while other stages are in various locations around downtown. “Panic in the Streets” set the precedent of hosting events at this location which has shifted the entertainment center of downtown Athens from College Square to Washington Street.
While “Panic in the Streets” contains a few examples of what not to do, O’Looney claims the event is still used today as a sample at national conferences on events and planning.
20 years later, Widespread Panic is still rocking and routinely sells out venues for multiple-night runs. Unfortunately, two founding members are no longer with the band. Michael Houser, lead guitar, passed away in 2002 from pancreatic cancer, and Todd Nance, drums, left for personal reasons in 2016. However, the band has survived adding Jimmy Herring on guitar in 2006 and Duane Trucks in 2016.
The band holds Athens in a special place in their hearts and returns to Athens every few years to pay homage to their hometown most recently at the Classic Center in 2016.
“It was an honoring of Athens. And they still honor us when they come and play anything at the Classic Center,” O’Looney said.
After the last song on that April night in 1998, people partied in the streets until the sun came up, but after the energy had settled and the crowd dispersed, there was little anyone in the town could complain about. Pretty amazing for a free concert that no one thought would happen just a few weeks before.
“Things happened and it just clicked,” says Schwartz. “Beginner’s luck.”