As Halloween and State Street's Freakfest get closer, it brings both anticipation and anxiety. At the city's Downtown Coordinating Committee meeting Thursday at Memorial Union, members said it was important to create both a safe and fun environment for this year's Halloween.
Although the committee said they are excited for the event, it also has a large task to plan it and make sure it turns out to be memorable.
Joel Plant, a member of the DCC, explained that since Halloween 2002, there has been incremental progress in issues such as safety and public costs.
Plant said the public cost of Halloween has declined 14 percent from 2008 and 41 percent from 2007. He said this can be improved upon with more smart purchases of materials and by reusing items from previous years.
Students from several organizations, including the Associated Students of Madison, attended the meeting.
It was suggested by some at the meeting that a student-led committee could team up with the DCC to help with events like Halloween and the Mifflin Street Block Party.
Adam Johnson, chair of the ASM Legislative Affairs Committee, said he wants to work more closely with local committees such as the DCC so future events will be more student-oriented.
Some committee members said they were open to the idea, and members said they hope to work with students in the future.
The Badger football game against Purdue will take place on Halloween.Members of the committee emphasized that the football game coinciding with Halloween could actually be beneficial to Freakfest.
Central District Cpt. Mary Schauf of the Madison Police Department said there would be a diverse crowd at Freakfest, including the UW alumni band, who would potentially want to attend the festivities, including the headlining band, Third Eye Blind.
Schauf said the MPD has decided to switch from a three-shift plan to a five-shift plan of patrols for monitoring Freakfest. Doing so, she said, would enable more efficient and continuous coverage by officers.
