Billed as the state’s largest outdoor concert and drawing around 35,000 visitors to the Cotton District in one weekend, Bulldog Bash is a pivotal event for Mississippi State University and Starkville alike. But when these huge numbers stack up against the compact two-lane chunk of asphalt the event occupies, the question arises: how do businesses and residents of the Cotton District prepare for and deal with the floods of people washing into the streets?
Robert Camp, partner of the Cotton District (owners of the blue and purple mixed-use buildings, among others) said they take security measures to prevent overcrowding and unauthorized persons from making their way into the apartments on the upper floors, above the bars.
“We have security guards that stand at the bottom of the buildings. Our primary concern is keeping random people from walking in,” he said. “We have predetermined wristbands and designate a certain number to lower the number of people actually in the building.”
Camp said the event takes a certain amount of faith and less anxiety over more inconsequential issues.
“We basically keep our fingers crossed and pray to God no catastrophes happen,” he said. “The fountain gets soap-sudded all the time; you get used to it.”
Robert Ledet, junior architecture major and former apartment resident in the Cotton District Plaza (the blue building), said getting to his apartment became a bit complicated during Bulldog Bash.
“When you’re walking around, you don’t have space to move your arms when you’re in the audience and even in that bar area,” he said. “It was frustrating; it’s more crowded than a football game in the student section.”
Paul Brasfield, a general manager at Bin 612 restaurant and bar, said for the restaurant, the weekend’s positives are well worth any congestion that occurs.
“Bulldog Bash and Super Bulldog Weekend are the two biggest (weekends) of the year, without a doubt,” he said.
Brasfield said Bin 612 will shuffle up their regular menu to adapt to the influx of the masses with food that is quicker to prepare.
“We’ll open our late-night menu early on Friday and Saturday. It usually runs from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., but because so many people are in town, we change it to fast, cheap, good food,” he said. Brasfield said furniture is also cleared and rearranged in exchange for additional standing room.
“We’ll move some furniture into the basement, take away some seating so we can have more standing room, just to accommodate a lot more people because there will be so many,” he said.
Like other Cotton District businesses, Brasfield said they will ratchet security up a notch.
“We work with Cobra Security; we’ll beef that up and have 12 security guards. They’ll be carding, checking IDs and keeping it straight because a fight or anything we don’t want could happen,” he said. “We’ll do a $5 cover on Friday night for bathroom usage. There’s just so many people everywhere, every inch of space.”
Brasfield said all the work done at the restaurant is to keep the environment fluid and enjoyable for the surge of visitors here for a pleasant weekend.
“It’s hard work, but if we cover our bases we should be good,” he said. “We want to have a good time; we want all our customers and employees to have fun.”