Although fewer officers patrolled State Street during Freakfest Saturday, police reported the lowest number of incidents they have seen in 15 years, with problems relatively miniscule compared to the problems of violence and rioting that marred earlier Halloweens.
According to police, 30 citations were distributed for offenses like underage drinking and having open intoxicants on the street and one person was arrested.
Overall, police said there were no significant events reported from Freakfest and said it was the most well-behaved crowed they have seen since the 1990’s.
“We’ve had highs and lows [since the 1970’s] in terms of attendants, arrests, injuries and vandalism,” Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said. “We did absolutely fantastic this year in all aspects.”
Verveer said his only disappointment is that the event had less attendance than in past years, which he said could have been for various reasons, including the Badger football loss, more expensive tickets or thatFreakfest “just isn’t as attractive to [students] as house parties are.”
Frank Productions, the concert promotion company that has run Freakfest for the past five years, reported they sold approximately 25,000-30,000 tickets both in advance and at the gate, which is less compared to last year’s 35,000 sold and 2009’s 44,000.
Before Freakfest started five years ago, Halloween in Madison was a headache for city officials due to the escalating eruption of violence, arrests and vandalism that occurred each year.
After Halloween on State Street ended with police in riot gear firing tear gas in 2005, former Mayor DaveCieslewicz implemented Freakfest, a gated event, in attempt to clean up Halloween in Madison.
Verveer said he wants to enact a dialogue with students in the future to see what will make Freakfest more attractive to them, such as hiring higher caliber entertainment to cater more to what college students enjoy.
“We should all be proud of the fact that, although [Freakfest] is not as edgy or cool, there’s no way we could go back to the problems of the old days,” Verveer said.
The main stage shut down at exactly 1:30 a.m. as scheduled after the headliner performance by All Time Low, and police experienced little difficulty encouraging people to leave the streets.
