The traditional weekend before Halloween State Street celebrations did not amount to much of anything this year, according to Lt. Cameron McLay of the Madison Police Department.
\The report I got from the people who were working was that it was reasonably quiet and there was nothing major to report,"" McLay said.
Despite the lack of revelers, the city had extra officers out because Halloween is generally celebrated the weekend before the actual holiday, McLay said.
""We did have some extra people out there but it was reasonably quiet under the circumstances,"" he said.
Ryan Hoelker, a manager at State Street Brats, 603 State St, said Saturday was not uniquely busy.
""About 25 percent of the people on Saturday night were dressed up. It wasn't much busier than any normal weekend, I don't think,"" Hoelker said. ""It was just a few people dressed up and a lot of people having a lot of fun.""
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the weekend was relatively peaceful and tame.
""It seemed like only one in 10 people were in costume,"" Verveer said. He also mentioned he extra police officers did not have very much to do Saturday night.
""The cops did send a number of officers home early Saturday night because the crowds never materialized. The officers, for example, that were working overtime were released early, around midnight,"" Verveer said.
Even the extra hour of bar time, supplied by daylight savings time, had little effect on the amount of activity on State Street, Verveer said.
""The fact that there was an additional hour of bar time didn't really seem to factor into any problems,"" he said. ""A lot of people obviously got the memo that the cops wanted people to wait until Halloween to party.""
The police are preparing for much more activity on State Street on Halloween night and the rest of next weekend, McLay said. He added the department does not know exactly what to expect for the weekend following Halloween.
""We're staffing extra people again for Halloween night and probably for the weekend as well, but we have no way of knowing whether one day or the other will be the big one, or if in fact there will be no big one,"" McLay said.
Verveer said he expected Thursday night on State Street to be much more active than this weekend.
""The bottom line is that this was truly the calm before the storm,"" he said.
