About 11,000 brightly clad, bead-wearing people joined in the bacchanalian festivities of Muncie Gras Saturday night.
Cheryl Crowder, program manager of Downtown Development, said although the final crowd count won't be known until later this week because of the ticket sales at multiple locations, the 10th annual event was comparable to past years.
"I'm exhausted, but it was great," she said. "[We had] high-caliber musicians, and the crowd is always well behaved. I'm amazed at the responsibility that people take for themselves and others. There aren't a lot of rules, but the biggest one is don't interrupt anyone's good time."
The night began with students traveling downtown via the MITS buses, trolleys and Busnectar.
The music was blasting on one of the trolleys heading to downtown Muncie. People had to yell to talk to one another, and once Queen's "Somebody to Love" came on, people of various inebriation levels tried to sing along.
Some neon-boa clad girls began sharing drinks on their way to the festivities, passing along a pink cup that contained "vodka that tasted like raspberries."
The lines getting into Muncie Gras were infamously long this year, some stretching a few blocks away from Walnut Street.
Once inside, patrons shuffled to and from the bars and tents lining the street. Many of the bars were packed by 11 p.m., forcing some patrons to buy multiple drinks at one time.
"I've been trying to get into the bars, but it's like elbows to a**holes in there," Ivy Tech freshman Spencer Cain said.
Vedrana Mlakic, a junior graphic design major and bartender at Doc's Music Hall, said the night was more than she expected.
"It's my first Muncie Gras working, but it is way crazier than New Year's; [there's] a lot of fun, fun people," she said.
Xtreme Fun Party Co. sponsored a large white tent for bull-riding patrons. Men and women took turns, and by the end of the night, some women decided to raise the stakes for more beads by going topless.
Cameras, cell phones and video cameras popped up from the surrounding crowd to capture much of the night.
When talking about the topless women, Xtreme Fun employee Rob Newton said, "They do it for the beads."
It was Newton's first time managing the bull riding tent, since the owners have managed the previous years.
"[The owners] gave me a bag of beads to bring and said ‘behave,'" he said.
Lincoln Tech senior Chris Durham said he enjoyed the festivities.
"Topless bull riding has been the best thing so far [at Muncie Gras]," he said.
A Ball State sophomore dietetics major was one of the women who walked out from the tent dripping in multi-colored beads. She said she never thought she would do it, but she decided to go topless for a variety of reasons.
"Peer pressure, [my friend] said he was going to pay me, and I got a lot of beads," she said, laughing.
Down the street, and in a much smaller white tent, DJ Kaleid (also known as DJ.DJ, DJ White Girl, or senior telecommunications major Chase Skiles), was busy mixing beats for an excited crowd. At one point, the tent became too crowded and Skiles asked people to step one foot back.
Skiles and the surrounding crowd synchronized, moving to the same beat, as neon lights flashed around the tent.
"I have the best crowd reaction [at Muncie Gras]. Period," Skiles said. "I can play just about anything and the crowd is into it the whole time."
Once 2 a.m. approached, Skiles showed no signs of stopping his mix, and the crowd cheered. However, his party was stopped when police began showing up, supporting the Muncie Gras curfew.
Even after the festivities ended and volunteers began packing up merchandise and supplies, the surrounding bars stayed open even later into the night.
Depauw graduate and aspiring rapper Alex Burns said he planned on hitting a few more bars before calling it a night.
He said he "shot-guned" several beers already, and had no idea how a plastic Bud Light banner got draped around him like a toga.
"This is the only time a year when girls actually ask you, ‘Can I show you my boobs?'" he said, gesturing that he gave out all the beads he had.
The 10th anniversary of Muncie Gras was filled with revelry and dancing, and was deemed a success by Crowder. She said she remembers when downtown Muncie was struggling, and she's happy to see all the businesses opening up and people supporting the area.
"[Muncie Gras 2011] symbolizes the 10 years of downtown development for me; it really marks the progress we've made," she said.
Crowder hopes the event encourages others to explore the stores and activities downtown Muncie can provide.
"I hope that people come away knowing that they can have a lot of fun downtown, and we love having them here," she said.
Amanda Hart contributed to this story
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