ST. LOUIS — On Saturday, Washington University shut down the ThurtenE Carnival 90 minutes early due to safety concerns after small groups began fighting. St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department sent officers on campus to help Washington U's police stop the fighting.
Saturday night Wash U released a statement that said "It was an unfortunate situation, but an easy decision to make because the safety of our community is always our highest priority. We will have increased security measures in place for tomorrow’s carnival."
Hours later the university announced they would be canceling the century-old carnival on Sunday due to safety concerns.
“We’re disappointed for our students and community members that we had to make the sad decision to close ThurtenE for Sunday,” said Anna “Dr. G” Gonzalez, vice chancellor for student affairs. “The safety of our community is always our highest priority and we felt it was necessary to take this step to prevent an unfortunate situation from becoming worse. We’re proud of our student organizers for all the hard work they put into planning this year’s event. We will work with them to make sure they recoup any losses incurred from this cancellation.”
Sunday morning 5 On Your Side saw campus police officers rummaging through bushes.
"I think it's just so disappointing to see that violence and ruin a really pretty and beautiful tradition," said Alexus Hernandez, a Wash U freshman. "I recently found out all the money from all the local booths and all of that were going directly to charity and I wanted to help out the community."
The student-organized event dates back to 1907 and is considered to be the oldest student-run carnival in the country.
"If there was a greater threat. I think the university should let people know that. If it was just simply an abundance of caution which they said .. I think it's an overreaction," said Ken Schuman, who has lived nearby for 35 years.
"I personally think that we all need to stop being so polarized and allow ourselves to have conversations and really just talk things out instead of immediately going to violence and name-calling," Hernandez said.
The last time ThurtenE Carnival was canceled was due to COVID-19 in 2020 and that was the first time since World War II and only the third time in the Carnival's history.
Ride tickets for the carnival do not expire and can be used at any American Banner Amusements events.
On Monday, Saint Louis Zoo Director Michael Mack provided the following statement regarding the incident:
“Safety of Zoo guests, staff, volunteers and animals is our highest priority, so precautionary measures were taken yesterday, Sunday, April 21, to prevent a potentially bad situation from happening. While it’s disappointing that we had to plan for this, all of us should take pride in the fact that we do so in order to offer a safe place for everyone to connect with the natural world. To me, this is more than just an offering – it’s our responsibility. The Zoo is and should always be a safe place for everyone. I want to thank Zoo Security, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, including the Forest Park Rangers, as well as key community partners like Forest Park Forever and Washington University in St. Louis. We received credible intel that fights that broke out between young members of our community on Saturday at the ThurtenE Carnival at WashU were going to continue at or near the Zoo yesterday. As such, we were successful in working together to prevent this from happening at the Zoo and in Forest Park. We did have to close the entrance gates approximately 30 minutes early yesterday (so, about 4:30 p.m.), but there was no impact on Animals Aglow, which started on time at 6:30 p.m. While closing, Zoo Security approached an unaccompanied teenager who was not exiting in attempt to get him to leave. Through this process, it was discovered that the teen was carrying a weapon. Zoo Security acted quickly and apprehended the teen and SLMPD took him into custody. Yesterday, we were able to keep all Zoo guests, staff, volunteers and animals safe and we were able to prevent a bad situation from happening. Now more than ever, we as a Zoo community, we as the St. Louis region, must do everything in our power to work together and be a safe place free of violence.”