Police said they forsee minimal problems Halloween weekend at a city meeting where city officials discussed last minute Freakfest updates and changes Thursday.
""Everything is so well run,"" Madison Police Lieutenant Dave McCaw said. ""The key is that it's a sponsored event, so it ends. We're able to predict overtime, which lowers our cost.""
Lieutenant McCaw said only 44 arrests were made last year, which was ""a giant decrease in comparison to previous years when Freakfest was not sponsored.""
The Madison Police Department will have five teams out on State Street to ensure safety of event-goers.
Madison resident Rosemary Lee said at the meeting that it is not just the students who get rowdy on Halloween.
""The rudest, most intoxicated people I have encountered were people well over 35,"" Lee said. ""It is the so-called adults who are just as problematic, if not more so.""
Freakfest will be organized by local promotion company Frank Productions who said they will not make any significant changes, operationally or timeline wise, from last year.
""Last year, from our standpoint, everything ran pretty smoothly, so we didn't make changes to the stage or fencing,"" Frank Productions representative Charlie Goldstone said.
City officials will fence off State Street at 6 p.m. Tickets will be accepted at 7 p.m. The event will last until 1:30 a.m.
