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UMass, Town Officials Make Joint Preparations For Blarney Blowout

Robert Rizzuto
/
The Repulblican/Masslive.com

A plan is in place to discourage drunken disruptive behavior during the so-called Blarney Blowout this Saturday in Amherst, Massachusetts.

There will be increased police presence throughout the town, with particular attention paid to off campus housing areas. There will be restrictions on out-of-town guests and campus parking. A free concert is being held for UMass students. 

University spokesman Ed Blaguszewski said officials hope to replicate the success of last year.

" This is a town-university collaboration to make sure all goes well," he said.

UMass spent $300,000 last year on the concert and security after rowdiness in 2014 at the off-campus parties resulted in 70 arrests and national embarrassment to the state’s flagship public university.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.