Along with thousands of attendees in a wide array of Halloween costumes, Freakfest 2008 also brought headlining band O.A.R. to the Capitol Square as a part of the city's collaboration with music promotion company Frank Productions.
The band took the Mountain Dew Amp/Z104 stage located at the top of State Street near the Capitol around midnight to a packed crowd of Freakfest attendees.
Meghan Minnehan, 23, said she traveled from Chicago for her first Freakfest this year. Minnehan, who said she has seen O.A.R. play over 50 times, said she decided to come to Madison's annual Halloween event just to watch the band perform.
Every single time you see them, it's totally different,"" she said. ""It's awesome.""
Katherine Walczak, a sophomore at Northwestern University, and Hannah Cox, a sophomore at the University of Georgia, said they were nearly trampled when concertgoers near the stage became rambunctious and began pushing one another.
""I like it but in the middle it gets too crowded,"" Walczak said. ""Both of them fell on the ground,"" Cox added, gesturing to two friends who were caught in the crowd.
At one point, O.A.R. frontman Marc Roberge said the band would not continue performing if attendees did not stop pushing each other.
""Make some new friends,"" Roberge told concertgoers as he tried to stop the crowd from becoming physical.
Madison Police Department public information officer Joel DeSpain said the large-scale performance was the only real concern police had throughout the night. After seeing a surge of people head toward the Amp stage once the band began playing, DeSpain said police restricted access to the area to prevent overcrowding.
""We were concerned about the number of people who were at that stage, so we took some steps to sort of create a little more space for people,"" DeSpain said.
Despite some bodysurfing in addition to the pushing, DeSpain said no injuries were reported near the O.A.R. stage.
Several local bands also played throughout the night on various stages. The Dollyrots, Thriving Ivory, The Hard Lessons and Donavon Frankenreiter performed on the Amp stage prior to the headlining act.
