Freakfest 2007"" is going one step further from last year's drastic change of adding $5 tickets to the main event Saturday night on State Street: The City Council approved the privatization of event management and hired Frank Productions. The result? Freakfest 2007, brought to you by Mountain Dew.
Not to sound overly facetious, but making the event private endangers the local element of the event that makes Halloween in Madison unique: hoards of costumed people mingling on State Street.
From an outsider's view, this year's event looks more like an organized concert than a national spectacle, which is what Halloween was in past years. On Saturday night, Oct. 27, patrons will bring their tickets, which they bought for $5 or $7 either on www.ticketmaster.com or in person, and enter State Street, which is now effectively a venue for multiple stages.
Having a well-known headliner, Lifehouse, is almost counterproductive to the nature of the Halloween celebration. The organized chaos may turn into plain old organization. Whereas former bands served as background music to the revelry, Lifehouse may cause some people to stand still. That is, unless, the police force people along, which begs the question of whether police will allow for some logjam on State Street. The methodical marching up and down the street and back is not only useful for traversing State Street, but adds another unique element to the party.
That the tickets are available online through Ticketmaster is representative of both good and bad principles. The good is that out-of-towners can buy tickets without coming to Madison, which should increase turnout from last year.
The bad is there may be a slippery slope of national publicity for Freakfest - private sponsors will want to capitalize on the event as much as possible, jeopardizing the concentration of people who come to Madison to enjoy the simple pleasures of dressing up and potentially acting like idiots. With the ticket sales capped at 50,000, there could be a noticeable change in the crowd demographic, assuming the event attracts more than 50,000 in the first place.
One cannot blame the city officials for exploring an option providing them with increased revenue, as well as getting the burden of organizing the event off their backs. As for a solution, I can only recommend the city keeps the organizers in check. The way things may be headed, the original attraction of the Halloween celebration will disappear, and in its place will be a jungle of marketing with advertisement in one form or another covering State Street.
How realistic is my aforementioned slippery slope of privatization? For starters, the city instituted the $5 ticket policy last year. This year, there is a $2 increase for those who buy tickets on the day of the event. Is it too pessimistic to assume there will be another price increase next year?
City Council members passed the resolution to hire Frank Productions, and their duty now is to make sure they do not unleash a corporate monster.
The greatest threat to Halloween in Madison is removing the focus from the people and placing it on the events, which the sponsors will undoubtedly want to promote. This is only speculation thus far; ideally, none of these considerations will come to fruition.
Yet, this year's Freakfest appears headed for a corporate love fest. Before long, you may find when police arrest under-aged drinkers, they will have to inform the arrested not of their Miranda rights, but that their arrest was brought to them by Diet Pepsi, or any other Pepsi product for that matter.
David Heller is a junior majoring in political science. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
