Madison Police are teaming up with members of the University of Wisconsin community to plan the first annual Halloween State Street party, which will take place on Saturday, Nov. 1.

Former Madison mayor Sue Bauman formed the coalition after last year’s riots. She put together a team of police, students, UW representatives and State Street storeowners to address the needs of the city regarding the Halloween celebration.

The committee decided to provide entertainment in hopes of keeping the crowds under control and of preventing further damage to State Street businesses.

“By giving people something to do other than drinking and wandering around State Street,” Bauman said, “we could really keep the crowd from building up and becoming too rowdy.”

Maintaining the interests of thousands of college students bent on partying will not be an easy task according to Luis Yudice, a Madison Police Department captain.

“Playing music for more than 50,000 people is a real challenge, but hopefully it will help in crowd control,” Yudice said.

Activities planned include two stages set on opposite ends of State Street, one in Library Mall and one at the State Street and Capitol junction. Each stage will be host to a band, which will play from approximately 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. During the day, festivities will be more family-oriented such as a parade, trick-or-treating and a costume contest.

Jack Garver, owner of The Fanny Garver Gallery on State Street, said he did not think this year was going to have the same problems as last year.

“I think the police are prepared for this year,” Garver said. “There should be a bigger police presence, and they are taking the necessary precautions. I’m really not too worried.”

Yudice agreed with Garver and said plans for Halloween 2003 have been in the works for months.

“We’ve already had several meetings in response to what happened last year, and we have a good plan in place,” Yudice said. “The effort to prepare started months earlier this year, and we really don’t expect to have too much difficulty as we will be utilizing all our officers.”

The committee is taking other precautions as well, such as trying to minimize the use of glass containers by urging liquor stores to sell cans instead of bottles.

“After Mifflin Street, the road was just covered in a layer of glass, and we want to avoid that,” Yudice said.

Riley’s Wines of the World, University Liquor and Capitol Centre Foods are already supporting the idea.

There is also talk of asking the State Street bars to lower their capacity and possibly charge covers in order to keep bartime more under control.

“I think trying to keep bartime from getting too crowded is a good idea,” UW senior Carrie Harvey said. “But covers probably won’t make much of a difference. If people can’t get into bars, they’ll just stay on State Street.”

Event planners have started a website to inform the public of changes to the holiday at www.madisonhalloween.com.