Only in Madison do students have not one, but two large scale parties in an academic year.
Those are the sentiments echoed by many UW-Madison students, Madison residents and city and police officials, who all have some involvement in the two biggest parties of the year—Halloween on State Street and the Mifflin Street Block Party.
Halloween festivities in Madison traditionally fall on the last weekend in October. Since the 1970s, people from all over the United States have visited the city to help students and residents celebrate the holiday.
Partygoers, until recently, were able to walk the hallowed State Street both Friday and Saturday nights free of charge and take in the electric atmosphere created by the buzz surrounding the event. However, for much of the last decade, enormous crowds—usually about 100,000 people—over consuming alcohol have caused the event to become tainted with riots and violent crime near the end of the night's festivities.
All that changed in fall 2006.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz decided to put an end to the rioting, raucous crowds and outbursts of violence by charging a $5 admission fee to gain access to the event. In addition, Cieslewicz also fenced off the street and increased police presence.
""Freakfest 2006,"" as it was labeled in 2006, ended without police officers having to administer tear gas to disperse the crowd for the first time in five years. Cieslewicz hailed the efforts of police, residents and students and called the event ""peaceful and fun.""
Still, students get a chance to resume their binge drinking ways in the spring.
The Mifflin Street Block Party takes place near the end of April or early May. It began as in 1969 as a protest to the Vietnam War; however, since the early 1990s, it has become an event in which students drink goodbye to the semester and unwind before finals.
Despite the presence of alcohol, Mifflin has not had a history of ending violently like Halloween has.
Madison's Chief of Police, Noble Wray, said Mifflin is a lower key event, usually maxing out at about 15,000 people. Most of who, according to Wray, are UW-Madison students, unlike the Halloween party.
The Madison Police Department, along with monetary assistance from the city, usually doles out hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep patrons safe during both events. But one thing is certain at these events, police will arrest belligerent individuals.
Police and city officials, such as Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, often hold meetings telling students what is expected of them during Halloween and Mifflin.
""Only in Madison do we tell you how to avoid arrests,"" said MPD Sgt. Dave McCaw.
