CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- Saturday marked the second annual C’ville Puzzle Hunt hosted by WTJU 91.1 FM. The community gathered at IX Art Park to kick off the city-wide hunt for clues and pieces to the puzzle. 

“The C’ville Puzzle Hunt is the second annual one of these events we have done. We kind of compare it to an escape room except all of downtown Charlottesville is the room. So, it’s a way to get together and we’ve got five diabolical puzzles that people will have to use their creative thinking skills and critical thinking skills, also just try to figure these things out,” General Manager of WTJU, Nathan Moore, said. 

More than 700 people registered and gathered at IX Park for an afternoon filled with searching for clues around town. Many of those involved were returning students, as this year’s puzzle was back-to-school-themed.

“I’m in a Design and Games for Learning class and they put it on our weekend stuff, like you should do this. And then I told them about it, and we decided to come check it out,” said Allie Berg, a student at the University of Virginia.

“I’ve never done a puzzle hunt before, but we are just excited to see how it goes,” UVA student, Ashley Hemp, said.

Emily Patterson and her husband started the hunt last year after attending a similar event when they lived in Washington, D.C. 

“This is a passion project. But my husband and I created this together, we used to do a very similar event in D.C. and then we moved to Charlottesville and wanted to put it on here,” she said. 

The participants had four hours to complete the puzzle with the first and last clues being at IX. Afterward, the puzzle teams were able to celebrate with food and an outdoor bar at the vinyl-spinning after-party.