150 OSU students hold snowball fight to battle winter boredom

Ohio State students challenged winter boredom by attempting an epic snowball fight on the Oval.

A Facebook event titled, “Big Ass Snowball Fight,” appeared to be a spontaneous idea to welcome people back for the first winter week. It was scheduled for Friday, Jan. 8, at 6 p.m.

By Friday afternoon, more than 2,000 students accepted an invitation, up from 800 the night before.

However, the snowball fight peaked at 6:30 p.m. with about 150 people participating.

Despite only about 7.5 percent of invitees attending, many students had fun.

"I did hit a guy in the face,” said OSU senior, Abbie Miller, 21. “It was pretty sweet. He looked really in pain. And I hope Monday morning when he goes back to school he has like a nice shiner and he can say, 'Yeah, there was this girl on the Oval and she got me.’”

Some said they had nothing better to do in the winter and were worried the event would not take place.

"First week back, something to do, it was fun,” said OSU sophomore, Stephanie Hynes, 19. “I'm glad they did this. You have to do more things like this, something in the winter because it gets so boring. Because you're forced to sit in your dorm, and forced to study or do nothing.”

The snowball fight began just after 6 p.m. It was 21 F, according to weather.com. Students began hesitantly at first, comfortably throwing snowballs at their friends. It may have been too cruel to throw at strangers. Eventually, almost everyone joined except for those who were still not comfortable and decided to build snow figures and make snow angels.

OSU sophomore, Sam Gastel, 20, was one of the first to arrive. However, he was unimpressed of the 27 participants starting the fight. Gastel said he came because he was bored, and he was disappointed by the attendance.

However, students like Hynes and Miller decided to be optimistic and stick around. Both students said they were glad they stayed and were enjoying themselves.

Groups were spontaneously formed and dropped. Some fighters waited with their weapons until ready to unleash their icy ammunition onto their peers while others steadily supplied a barrage of attacks.

"It's like chaos,” said Miller. “They tried to organize a little bit with the colors, but it ended up just being a free for all.”

The fight was hectic and things got personal. Friends made sure to have a healthy yet competitive feud, while others took pride in challenging complete strangers.

Every student seemed happy to celebrate their first week back at OSU and blow off the idea of no fun during winter quarter.

Interview Clip from Snowball Fight

This is Abbie Miller, a high spirited senior at OSU attending the snowball fight.

Live Nation Entertainment opens office in Dallas, run by Senior Vice President Caterinicchia

Major entertainment booking service, Live Nation Entertainment will open an office in Dallas.

The area will be led by newly appointed Senior Vice President, Danny Cat-er-in-eek-e-uh. Key venues for the new office are Cowboys Stadium and American Airlines Center.

Cat-er-in-eek-e-uh has produced more than 3,000 concerts since 1978, including big names such as Paul McCartney, the Eagles and more.

Live Nation Entertainment is the product of both Live Nation and fellow live entertainment booking company, Ticketmaster, successfully merging in January.

Snowball Fight Videos

Before I publish my profile project onto the blog, I'll be sharing a recent article on a 150 person snowball fight at OSU. Here are some videos I created when I was reporting.

Allow me to Introduce Dan Wilburn

I am writing a profile about Dan Wilburn, a new Columbus comedian. He participates in open mic nights at bars like Surly Girl Saloon for example, and he has started to make comedic news videos. His first video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdNHzKJoR3g