Will CarpenterOle Miss students have become increasingly dissatisfied with the prices that Oxford bars are charging for cover. During the pandemic, some students reported seeing covers as high as $60, but typically cover charges on the Square sit between $20 and $40.
Discussion around the topic has increased since a post from the Instagram account “Strike the Bars Oxford” went viral among university students on Jan. 15. In the account’s first post, it called for the Ole Miss student body to “come together over a common cause” and “fight the corruption” of high covers.
It’s unclear how serious the account was intended to be, but nonetheless, it has amassed over 1,500 followers since its creation. The owner of the account was unable to be reached for comment at the time of publication.
The bar staff on the Square has also noticed an uptick in patrons over the past two weeks. Along with the larger crowds, staff members of some bars said people are arriving to the bars earlier than past semesters.
“The bar is usually full by 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. every day, weekdays included,” Stone Parish, bar manager at Rooster’s Blues House, said.
Parish also said that Roosters has been charging covers every day, but they generally do not exceed $20.
Peyton Attaway, Funky’s manager, said the weekend crowds have picked up substantially since students returned from winter break. However, Attaway said that Funky’s is often free to enter.
“We haven’t charged cover since the last home football game,” Attaway said.
Picasio Thompson, university alumni and local comedian, recently took to Twitter to comment about the issue after discovering the “Strike the Bars Oxford” page. Since then, his tweets on the matter have garnered considerable support.
From cities like Nashville, Las Vegas and Austin, to college towns like Tuscaloosa and Starkville, Thompson said that he has never seen cover charges like those in Oxford. Oxford is widely considered an anomaly when it comes to cover charges, and Thompson said he does not believe things will change any time soon.
“I can easily say, ‘Oh, they’re just trying to recoup their money for their losses’ or whatever,” Thompson said. “Well, what about the other hundreds of dollars of covers that have been going on for the last five football seasons?”
Thompson specifically recalls his freshman year, when covers were as high as $70 the weekend that the Rebels hosted LSU. Some students have reported covers as high as $100 on particularly popular gamedays.
Patrons have continued to pay cover charges, despite the fact that they have recently been as steep as $40 on a weeknight. In essence, businesses may know that people are willing to pay, so prices remain high.
The pandemic has brought a stream of undeniable challenges for local businesses, and bars have had to conform to new regulations over the past year.
Athens, Georgia has an expansive bar scene. The college town has a record of 80 bars in the span of one square mile, the most bars per capita in the United States. Mikaela Mooney, a senior at the University of Georgia, said that there are 10 to 15 bars where a big portion of student night life takes place.
Despite the popularity of the bars, she almost never has to pay a cover charge for entry.
“It’s definitely unusual to see a cover in the city of Athens,” Mooney said.
The only time that Mooney recalled any cover charges were on nights of major football games. She said some bars were charging $10 covers when UGA had a home game against Auburn University last fall.
“That’s just the bar’s way of making a couple extra dollars, but that’s the only night I can recall,” Mooney said. “That was just a night I chose not to go out, I just went to a party because everyone was like, ‘We’re not doing a cover,’ so we just stayed in.”
The University of Georgia has around 10,000 more students enrolled than UM. However, Athens has a little below 125,000 residents, dwarfing Oxford’s population of roughly 27,000.
About 550 miles northeast of Oxford, Mississippi, is Oxford, Ohio, where senior Ellie Baumgartner attends Miami University. The two towns share several key similarities.
Both towns have a similar number of bars all located in one section of downtown, and all of the bars are under similar coronavirus regulations. Most importantly, the majority of students’ social life takes place in a section of Oxford, Ohio, which, at night, is akin to a bustling Square.
“We’re definitely a pretty bar-heavy school,” Baumgartner said. “Most of our social life goes on in what we call our uptown. So Oxford, (Ohio) is literally in the middle of a cornfield. Then it’s just our campus. It’s pretty much all bars, some restaurants, and you start going out as soon as you’re a freshman.”
The similarities in the two towns’ bar scenes end there, though, because the only patrons who have to pay covers are those under the age of 21.
“If you’re 21, it’s free,” Baumgartner said. “If you’re under 21, then you have to pay a cover, usually starting at night. If you’re going out during the day, cover doesn’t start until normal hours.”
Typically, a cover for those 18 to 20 would be $9, but Baumgartner said that only occurs at the most popular bar in town. Otherwise, underage patrons also get in free.
The highest cover charge she can remember paying on a night out was $10. Baumgartner said that if charges were any higher, students in Ohio would probably stick to partying at home.
That is the attitude supporters of the Instagram page “Strike the Bars Oxford” are attempting to cultivate on the Square, but thus far, it is unclear whether they have made any impact.
