Opinion
Freakfest poor tribute to our history
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Also by Allegra Dimperio:
- Freakfest poor tribute to our history (November 2, 2009)
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It’s the Monday after Halloween. By now, everyone’s hangovers have dulled, their Facebook pictures are updated, and they’ll have figured out how they got home Saturday night. The costumes are put away, but the stories of the shenanigans will be the only topic of conversation for the next week or so. The Madison Halloween tradition, which began 30 years ago, continues.
Or perhaps not. Everyone knows the lore of Halloweens past with riots, vandalism and dorms stuffed with drunken co-eds. It has been reported at the event’s peak, more than 100,000 people flocked to State Street to partake in the spectacle. Bonfires, open intoxicants and hundreds of arrests were not uncommon. Halloween on State Street truly captured the spirit of the evening, with mischief and melee abound. Today, the memories of those Halloweens haunt Freakfest, which bears little to no resemblance to its forbearer.
After four consecutive years of rowdier-than-usual crowds that resulted in the police using tear gas and other riot-busting techniques, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz had had enough. Thus Freakfest was invented, and simply by hiring a band to play, the city was able to charge admission to State Street. To make sure no one got to see the band for free, the city blocked off the area to both traffic and pedestrians, which neatly solved the problem of how to monitor the drunken crowd and established places of entry to collect tickets. Some of the revenue from the ticket sales enabled the city to install high-definition cameras to monitor the entire street. This was the fourth year of Freakfest, and consequently the fourth year of paying admittance. It seemed as though everyone was happy: The police had an easier job, the city of Madison didn’t lose as much money, and the black eye that had been the State Street Halloween party began to fade. Yes, everyone was happy, except, perhaps, the patrons of the event.
When I purchased my ticket, I was surprised to see it was sold through Ticketmaster. I was doubly surprised when I noticed that the event was “brought to you by Mountain Dew.” There was even an Amp/Z104 sponsored main stage, and the conglomeration of WISC TV/My Madison TV/C3K Urban Theater had a smaller stage. To top it all off, Freakfest is put together by Frank Productions, which is paid for bringing in the bands. It looks like our little block party has turned into a corporate sponsored event.
When the City Council decided to bring in Frank Productions, it was the end of an era. The event lost more than its violence and insolence; it lost a part of its soul as well. This is seen especially well by looking at the number of attendees. In 2004, an estimated 75,000 people came to State Street compared to about 44,000 this year. This number is up from the estimated 35,000 who paid admittance for the first time in 2006. The number of arrests is also down, with only 47 this year compared to the record 445 arrests in 2004. These numbers look impressive, but the truth is that police aren’t necessarily doing their job better and students aren’t all less rowdy. It just means the rowdier ones don’t want to pay to get onto State Street.
The fact that there are less arrests now is simply because there are less people on State Street to arrest. While it is well and good to be proud of the progress that the party has made, the only way they have gotten to this point is essentially by dissuading Madisonians to come while trucking in out-of-staters who want to see the music. Although people from outside Wisconsin have been coming to the event since it started, today they make up a rather large chunk of the attendees. Thanks to Facebook, MySpace, and the bands’ websites, fans from all over the country can join the ranks of costumed revelers on State Street. As a result, people come to partake in a Madison tradition without realizing not many of the participants are actually from Madison.
Although we may resent it, Freakfest truly has made the experience a more pleasant one. Participants no longer have to worry about stepping in broken glass or being pepper sprayed. The thing we need to examine is the cost that made this change possible. We have taken a Madison tradition and distorted it with sponsors, barricades and overpriced entry fees. The event has gone from a one-of-a-kind experience to just another sponsored and commercial event. It is time to claim back State Street by voicing dissent and working towards positive change. We don’t want a return to the chaos, but for Madisonians to have a say in how their party is planned. It is time to give a part of Freakfest back to the people of Madison.
Allegra Dimperio (adimperio@wisc.edu) is a freshman intending to major in journalism and theater.
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IP hash: b80a4fbb
Kid,
You’re a freshman. You weren’t even in college when Freakfest was born.
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LOL
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Silly freshman :)
May you remember this article when you’ve grown up. While I’m sure drinking and destruction seem nice to you now, when you’re an adult you’ll hopefully have outgrown that phase of rebellion (and innocence?).
I’m personally glad to see a safe environment downtown, even if it does mean that it’s gone corporate. Much better than putting officers of the law in unnecessary harm.
And, as you’ll realize once you own nice things, it’s a benefit to those shopkeepers who are helping to revitalize State St.
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It’s “fewer” arrests and “fewer” people.
IP hash: 9c47cbe7
It’s “fewer” arrests and “fewer” people.
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Way to go Allegra,
Beign 39 years old and a Madison native, I remember when the bulk of the city could decend on State Street for any given Halloween and have a good time. It was the lack of insurance underwriting by the Wisconsion Student Associatin that got the party stopped for several years, and then the badness happened. People kept showing up, but there was nothing planned, so hey, let’s get nuts! Corporate sponsorship has provided a safer and more homogenous experience. That kind of kills it for me. I am a Madisonian. A bit of a rebel. I will NEVER pay to go to State Street!
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“Bonfires, open intoxicants and hundreds of arrests were not uncommon. Halloween on State Street truly captured the spirit of the evening, with mischief and melee abound.”
Wow. Spoken like the irresponsible youngster that you clearly are, who doesn’t have to foot the bill for police presence, the increased insurance premiums, or even to properly process the sorry excuses for “party-goers” who end up being arrested because they couldn’t resist putting a brick through a window. Like others have said, you need to keep this article to refer to it in years to come. It would be especially hilarious to see your face after you become a tax-paying homeowner, when you look back on this article.
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Every year someone writes this same editorial
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I must have missed the part in the article where he advocates for rioting.
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Halloween in Madison is a lot of rude, noisy, stinky, and sometimes angry drunks in ugly and barely there costumes who wouldn’t dare behave that way anywhere else or at their parents’ house while discussing their college “budget”, who thumb their noses and have no respect for parents or children—losers that end up vomiting or passing out, arrested, perhaps frozen, in the hospital, in a drunk driving “accident”, or waking with someone they don’t know and lining up at the clinic to get tested for STD’s like HIV, Hep C, HPV (1 out of 5 girls has it now in the US), etc. (Of course in some years end up DEAD). Halloween USED for kids, but this year I saw almost no trick or treaters. Nowadays it seems the kids think they can’t do anything unless they are “grown up” (YOU CALL THAT GROWN-UP?). How on earth did it get hijacked by the rude, drunk crowds that can’t handle dressing decently and acting like mature, respectable adults? Is it possible we have 40,000 toddlers attending the University? Does the University seriously ask for donations while this sort of thing goes on? I will find a much BETTER school to give to.
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uh, maybe because half the people there don’t even go to UW Madison? The year of the worst rioting, 2004, when there were nearly 450 arrests, less than 15% were UW Madison students
http://www.badgerherald.com/news/2004/11/01/riotsparkspolice_t.php
We don’t need your money. I don’t need a self righteous prick telling me how to live my life when he is too fucking stupid to consider that State street is not UW Madison.
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After speaking with Assistant to the Mayor Joel Plant and seeing official city measurements of the State Street area, there is no physically possible way for 100,000 people to have been there. That’s almost 5 people for every square meter from Library Mall to the Capital. Maybe over the course of the weekend 100,000 people came and went but at one time? Not possible. Simply not physically possible.
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You don’t actually expect a FRESHMAN to research an article first, do you? Especially one majoring in journalism and theater. It’s no surprise the newspapers are folding faster than a crappy poker hand with crap like this being printed.
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I think 50,000 - which is probably what this year was between the tickets and those smart enough to get on State before 7:00 pm - is the most that State Street can really handle.
75,000 is probable if you consider all the spillover. There’s a bunch of it and 2004 in particular was a city-wide warzone.
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In the 80s the crowds used to continue into Library Mall and up Bascom. So yes, 100,000 was possible.
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I think the article’s point was not advocating for a riotous time, but more that the “corporations” have sucked the soul out of the event and people from Madison (though the City plans the event) don’t have a say in how it is operated. I disagree, but I think that was the point the author was trying to make.
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Actually, taking uniquely spirited, unfettered popular events and turning them into pay-to-enter corporate-sponsored watered-down denatured and sanitized caricatures of themselves is the quintessential Madison Tradition….
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No joke. It’s happening with Mifflin too, little by little…
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MU arcade -> coffee house chain -> suk
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The author doesn’t seem to be arguing for rioting/madness/destruction (“Freakfest truly has made the experience a more pleasant one”)- instead she seems to say that the real problem here is corporations taking over a city’s holiday, selling out a tradition to the highest bidder (as with Mifflin, and as with the Union).
And yes, she’s a freshman- but wasn’t everyone 18 at some point? Why do we deride those who happen to be ambitious, educated- solely because they still possess youth? Yes, she wasn’t in college when Freakfest was born- but neither were more than half of the University’s students. So, her opinion on something isn’t valid because she wasn’t at the inception? We ought discredit every opinion writer who wasn’t around for the beginning of something? Sheesh.
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thank you.
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Can’t wait for the sequel to this article in May when Mifflin fails to live up to it’s “vietnam-fighting” past.