Madison officials have already sold more than 1,000 Halloween tickets that give buyers the right to enter State Street Saturday, Oct. 28. However, the city has yet to announce any plans for the traditionally calmer Friday night festivities.
To date, there are no provisions preventing students from moving the main Halloween night from Saturday to Friday in response to controls put in place by the city for Saturday.
Though Friday night has always been a ""warm-up night"" for Halloween, according to Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, who said Halloween celebrations would remain on Saturday due to the large amount of out-of-state friends that come to Madison for the weekend.
""There are so many students coming from out of town, and it is hard for them to get here on time and have a big party the day they arrive,"" Verveer said.
Britta Polson, a sophomore at the University of Illinois, said she would skip class and come to Madison for the Halloween celebration on Friday. She said she intends to ""follow the crowd.""
""I would probably be willing to pay the five dollars though,"" Polson said. ""I've heard that Halloween is a blast there, and I want to be able to experience it all.""
Still, due to the travels of out-of-state students, Friday has not only been smaller, but also more of a local celebration.
""Friday night has been a more fun night because there hasn't been as many creeps from out of town, and it is mostly a local affair,"" Ald. Austin King, District 8 said.
But King said there would probably be a larger crowd than usual on Friday night this year.
""I assume that students will take full advantage of being able to go on State Street with out paying five dollars,"" King said. ""But I doubt the crowd will get anywhere to the tens of tens of thousands.""
Central District Police Commander Mary Schauf stressed there would be no difference in police coverage for Friday and Saturday.
""We will still have a full plan in place for Friday night, it won't involve the ticketing and you won't have the entertainment, but we will have a full plan in place,"" Schauf said. ""We are not just ignoring Friday by any means.""
Police Chief Noble Wray said the department is prepared for a jump in Friday night attendance. In addition to free admission, Wray pointed to the football game and hockey games taking place during the weekend of Oct. 28.
""We've been looking at this one for some time,"" Wray said.
