ComFest, one of Columbus' largest festivals, began as a hippie street party on May 12, 1972, on blocked-off streets just east of Ohio State University.

ComFest, one of Columbus� largest festivals, began as a hippie street party on May 12, 1972, on blocked-off streets just east of Ohio State University.

Community Festival, held at that time on 16th and Waldeck avenues, featured bands, alternative food and card-table displays promoting such community organizations as the Columbus Free Clinic, a food co-op and the campus-area tenants� union.

The Columbus Citizen Journal reported that �the freaks, the straights (which had nothing to do with sexual orientation then), the bemused� attended the two-day party.

Festival food included organic pizza and health foods prepared by a purveyor that the Citizen Journal called �Guru Rama das Consciously.�

Michael Stinziano, who later served as a member of the state General Assembly for 22 years, played the landlord in a �Dunk the Landlord� booth. Balls were 10 cents each or three for a quarter.

Enterprising students painted a junk car to look like a police car, labeled it �Columbus D-Oinker Platoon� and invited people to pound it with a mallet � two swings for a quarter. Columbus Police D Platoon was known to OSU students for its nightstick-wielding mop-up operations during the riots that periodically broke out on campus in the 1960s and �70s.

There was, in fact, a riot that very day on campus. Thirty people were injured and 80 arrested after an anti-Vietnam War demonstration turned into a rock-throwing confrontation.

ComFest, which will be held June 22-24 at Goodale Park this year, outgrew the campus area years ago. About 70,000 people are expected to attend this year�s free festival, which will feature more than 200 performers on six stages. This year�s theme: �Building Community for 40 Years.�

Suggestions for Mileposts that will run this bicentennial year can be sent to: Gerald Tebben, Box 82125, Columbus, OH 43202, or email gtebben@columbus.rr.com.