H -°, L 6° | Tomorrow: 
H 18°, L 6°Halloween on State Street in 2005 was the end of an era, though none of us knew it at the time. Sadly, the students who remember Halloween before the culture of paid tickets, police supervision and pepper spray are an increasingly smaller minority. Only the students who, like me, were here three years ago experienced the hazard of braving the drunken, costumed horde on State Street. These authentic Halloween celebrations have since been looked upon with nostalgia. But the truth is, while enjoyable and certainly memorable, the event was utter chaos. Both students and property were greatly at risk, and some sort of control desperately needed to be maintained. Now, I understand that the knee-jerk reaction of some students is to conform to cliches of rebelling against authority. But few students can account for how disordered Halloween was in previous years.
Each Halloween, college students for miles would flock to Madison to share in our masquerade. People would cram onto State Street until there were 100,000 costumed college kids, drunk and having fun. But on Halloween, drunks in costume knew they could get away with more and took advantage of this. “‘Sir, could you provide a description of the man who mugged you?” “I’m telling you, officer, it was the Cat in the Hat!”
Everyone knows that the most fun costumes are characters that cause trouble. That’s why the classic gorilla suit remains popular to this day. How many Heath Ledger Jokers do you think we’ll see this Halloween? I’m willing to bet a small swarm of them. But those are the costumes I enjoy too; I say, send in the clowns. But with thousands of typically docile students in disguise causing trouble, there are bound to be people getting hurt. Without some sort of police presence, these Jokers would bring the chaos of Gotham to Madison.
Girls are the most vulnerable of all on Halloween. Some students are bound to get hurt, and the revealing costumes many girls wear offer little protection. These college girls are willing to bare it all in the frigid air of Halloween in Madison, with no one but Jack Daniels and Jim Beam to keep them warm. God bless them, they are truly the unsung heroes of Halloween. But if the chaos on State was allowed to continue, these girls would have to suit up in defense. This is not the type of protection these girls should have to worry about on Halloween.
Just like the Mifflin Block Party every year, a significant portion of those arrested on Halloween are not students at UW-Madison. All the visitors from other schools have no loyalty to Madison and couldn’t care less if State Street burns to the ground. They harass the cops, light smoke bombs and break glass until Madison police have no choice but to pepper spray people back to their homes. I doubt they enjoy using such force against students, but officers are 300 Spartans facing an army of college drunks that are 100,000 strong.
Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy mayhem as much as the next guy, but I’d rather dodge a little pepper spray than avoid glass and smoke bombs while intoxicated. Controlling the festivities is better than outlawing them, but the methods used in the past two years fell flat as ideal alternatives. Without an actual attraction, Madison charged students a fee to walk down State, which they see for free all the time. In particular, underage students resented paying admission, since they couldn’t go to bars and were essentially paying to wander around.
Shifting Madison’s Halloween festivities to more of the atmosphere of a music festival is a worthwhile transformation. The concert environment will give the event a focal point other than getting drunk and acting ridiculous. This year’s addition of O.A.R. is a great improvement: How you feel about the band’s music is irrelevant. The reality is, the incorporation of a popular, mainstream act adds value to Halloween and makes it an asset to the city and not a liability. This year, Freakfest tickets will provide valuable concert admission instead of a hand stamp at arbitrary toll booths. The city’s new ideas will make Freakfest 2008 an enjoyable concert venue instead of a six-block street with a cover charge. College kids will still come in costume, ready to spend their cash up and down State. And who knows? The money Madison makes might be more than the costs from collateral damage. So whether we are fans of O.A.R. or not, we should be happy that the concert’s inclusion will assure Freakfest’s future and make it possible for both cops and college students to enjoy the colorful costumes this Halloween.
Casey Skeens ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in French.
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Very very well put. Couldnt agree more.
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The old Halloween was not dangerous. The police mishandled a small late night crowd and some people did something stupid. This is not “chaos” and this was not “dangerous.” There were a lot more people in those years and there were no problems until 2 A.M. Having the city run this thing has ruined it. Lame.
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Charging to get into a public street is a bunch of hooey, even if they do have lame bands designed to pacify people. Going out to State St. on Halloween has always had well-known risks, just as going out to Bourbon St. on Mardi Gras has.
Since we all knew about it and so did the business owners who chose to have their businesses on State St., what’s the problem? Oh, right, the problem is the people who chose to live and work there expecting special protection and not taking responsibility for their choices.
I’ve only gone to one real Halloween, but I felt perfectly safe. And yes, I’m a “girl.” (Actually I was 18 at the time.) The next year, 2005, I went and I felt caged in and threatened by open animosity of the excessive and aggressive police force. All they did was cause even more crowding while restricting how you could get away from it and piss off rowdy drunk people, making it more dangerous.. while spending taxpayer money to protect a very small segment of the population. The fences and extra police presence didn’t make it safer at all - what made it safer was killing off the awesomeness of the event. Fewer people went, including the ‘lives of the party.’ I’m not talking about rioters specifically, though this includes them; I’m talking about all the people with actual backbones that realize how incredibly ridiculous this whole charade is.
The cops have historically made money off of all the tickets they had to give out (a profit of over $50,000 in 2004), despite their ludicrous irresponsibility with money. However, since FakeFest started, fewer people have gone and they’ve been, well, the kind of obedient nonthinking people who like Lifehouse and OAR. The kind of people who would only get tickets if it was the first time they drank. So, they’re giving out fewer and fewer citations every year and making less money from them, creating a vicious cycle that, mark my words, will make them “need” to raise the ticket prices every year. (Which will make fewer people go, perpetuating the cycle, etc.)
Seriously, who are they to tell you you can’t go out in public?
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well said. i do wish i’d been around for the old halloween though, i feel like i don’t know what i’m missing.
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I was around for the “old” Halloween on State Street. And by old, I don’t mean 2003…more like 1983.
Tens of thousands of people crammed State Street back then, and while there was a lot of drinking and a lot of general nonsense, the crowds and the police were always very much in control and, for all intents and purposes, very respectful.
Yes, it was a drunk-fest. But it was fun and it was pure. I miss it very much.
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I agree with the points you make and enjoy your writing style!