OPINION & EDITORIAL
Halloween done right, for once
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Gerald Cox:
- ASM needs revamping to have a semblance of legitimacy (October 20, 2008)
- No vacancy for blacks in GOP (October 13, 2008)
- UW band needs to fix itself, fast (October 6, 2008)
- McCain choices show no leader (September 29, 2008)
- Taxpayers need a bail out like AIG (September 22, 2008)
Related Stories:
- A hallow compromise (September 21, 2006)
- A Hollow-een (October 26, 2007)
- Students add to Madison's mystique (October 6, 2005)
- Let Halloween fall where it may (October 9, 2003)
- Plans promise more treats than tricks (October 27, 2004)
Share This:
by Gerald Cox
Monday, October 29, 2007
You call that Halloween? You call that neutered, watered-down, city-sponsored, band-infested, well-policed, benign event Halloween? Celebrants from years ago would barely recognize what the city has wrought upon a fabled student tradition — the unbridled carnage and tomfoolery of Halloween on State Street. With bands, food vendors, gated entrances and exits and an eerily Orwellian public announcement system, the city of Madison is taking its turn at remaking the Madisonian Halloween tradition. The city has taken by force what used to belong to students. And Halloween in Madison is all the better for it. The student Halloween celebrations featured riot-inducing topless coeds, extemporaneous bonfires, riot police, tear gas, pepper spray and enough arrests to make an anti-war protester blush. The student Halloween was an overcrowded mess of out-of-towners who cared little for leaving State Street much the same way they had found it. The student Halloweens culminated in spectacularly frenzied riots as gleeful students found themselves on the receiving end of whatever you call those fire extinguisher looking things that deploy pepper spray. Oh yeah, and there were costumes, too. The city-sponsored Freakfest has provided us with a new and family friendly Madison Halloween mainstay. Piles of horse excrement dissuade revelers from gathering in the street, gates block off side streets and stages flank State Street. Police flood the streets and pose for pictures, while mounted police draw the sort of crowds that an apartment balcony full of the aforementioned riot-inducing topless coeds used to draw. Food vendors line the streets, and area families can rest assured that they will not need a SWAT team to escort their children the length of State Street. While students made Halloween a lawless mob fest, the city has managed to make Halloween into an event. This year, Freakfest ended as scheduled and was executed as planned. There was no tear gas or pepper spray, and not a hint of riot gear in sight. The night ended in a handful of arrests, and no major disturbances. Storefronts were not vandalized, unassuming tires were left unscathed and Lifehouse took us back to the nineties with light, inspirational rock. Students were willful, obedient participants in a well-orchestrated performance. And, if you were on State Street, you still had all sorts of fun. This year marks the second year in a row that State Street’s Halloween celebration did not end in pepper spray, tear gas, riot police or a combination thereof. A new pattern in Madison’s Halloween tradition is beginning to emerge, and it’s far from the lawless mob fest that Halloween has resembled in years gone by. The Halloween experience has been institutionalized. It has been tamed. We, the students, used to control when and how Halloween was celebrated. Now, we must purchase the right to enter State Street as if it were some commodity to be bought. We are forced to listen to bands we may or may not enjoy. We are the powerless participants in an event that we once defined. And it has worked so well. The biggest difference between the city Halloween and the student Halloween is the level of safety. The student Halloween was a frenzied mass of people, where the cop costumes far outnumbered the cop uniforms. Bands were not a highlight of the celebration — they were a distraction before the true revelry could begin. Students weren’t posing with police officers, they were heckling them, hurling objects at them, chanting those oft-maligned expletive-laced student section chants at them. Families, if they came, left in a hurry, worrying for their safety. Crowds wandered on, off, and around State Street aimlessly, waiting for the riot to begin. People were drunk, in costume, and expecting disorder. The city’s careful planning and execution have done away with the riotous expectations of Halloween revelers. Paying a sobering $5 cover charge has forced us to consider whether or not a trip to State Street is worth our while, and once there, causes us to consider the wisdom in destroying an event we had paid to attend. The city’s measures have served also to cut down on the amount of revelers whose sole purpose of going to State Street is to see whether or not there will be a riot, and just how bad it will be. The expectations surrounding Halloween have changed, and our erstwhile expectations of disorder created a context in which those who wished to bring it about were tacitly condoned, if never explicitly encouraged. We, the student body, have lost our rights to be the driving force behind Madison’s Halloween, and the city has proven to be an able steward of the celebration. And that’s exactly the way things should be. Gerald Cox (gcox@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in economics.
Anonymous (October 29, 2007 @ 11:07am):
So let me see, Students' Halloween 80-100,000 people, the City's Halloween 32-34,000 people, and pay $7. hmm, which one would I rather go to?
Anonymous (October 29, 2007 @ 2:29pm):
Stockholm syndrome?
Anonymous (October 29, 2007 @ 2:59pm):
@ 11:07: It's not which one you would rather go to, it's which one the citizens of Madison (read: not just the students) would rather have.
Anonymous (October 31, 2007 @ 5:24pm):
The city of Madison isn't trying to make Halloween into an "event," or something for everyone (families and students) to look forward to every year. They were completely scared of what it had become and they want it gone. Gone completely. They can sugar coat and disguise it as some summerfest-like party, but the truth of the matter is, their goal is to snuff Madison Halloween out for good...
Anonymous (October 31, 2008 @ 4:08pm):
WOW...this guy must have been a tool for the university...and what does he have against topless coeds?!
Add a comment
We welcome your thoughts, but please keep your feedback thoughtful, on-topic and respectful. Offensive language, personal attacks, or irrelevant comments may be deleted.
Login...
Not registered? Sign up now.
It's quick, free, and the email address you provide will not be sold or solicited.
