Tickets to enter State Street Oct. 28 for the annual Halloween celebration go on sale today and can be purchased for $5, with a limit of four tickets per person, at Library Mall or from the Madison Parks Office.
According to the Madison Parks Department, people who wish to purchase tickets may do so daily at either location from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m until Oct. 25. Tickets will be sold Oct. 26-27 at only the Library Mall location from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. There will be four booths devoted to ticket sales the day of the event along State Street, where tickets can be purchased from 1 p.m. until the conclusion of the Halloween celebration.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said those who live on State Street are able to apply for free tickets online. Ticket information is available www.halloweenmadison.com.
Ticket distribution details were specifically designed by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's office, Verveer noted, so it is easy for residents to obtain tickets but significantly more difficult for others.
"[Cieslewicz] would very much like to downsize the event," he said. "It was a purposeful decision by the mayor's office to not sell general tickets on the Internet or through a ticket agency."
Common Council President Austin King added for businesses on State Street, employers must submit a list of people who will be working the evening of Oct. 28 to the Parks Department, and free tickets will be distributed through the employers.
The Parks Department also recently placed a limit of four tickets per person, which King said was adopted to prevent excessive crowds of young out-of-towners from attending the celebration.
According to Verveer, schools in previous years have provided shuttle buses to Madison for Halloween weekend.
Despite the effort to downsize Halloween, the Parks Department still plans to sell no more than 80,000 tickets for the event. Yet King said he would be very surprised if tickets sold out before Halloween weekend.
"[The limit] was something they wanted to put in order to prevent a busload of people from coming down with just one person helping them out," he explained. "I really doubt they will sell 80,000 tickets."
