Armed with drums made of overturned buckets and a megaphone, a group of about 80 University of Wisconsin students dressed in pink marched and danced through Madison Saturday evening to reclaim the night from violence and crime.

Causing curious heads to turn, the “Take Back the Night” parade chanted “Two, four, six, eight — No more violence! No more hate!” as it marched down the middle of the street on its way to Library Mall.

Traffic came to a complete standstill at the corner of Langdon and Henry streets as the procession stopped in the intersection to dance for a few minutes, chanting, singing and beating their bucket drums the whole time.

Many of the participants had covered themselves with pink in every way possible, using shirts as headscarves and covering their faces with pink bandannas.

UW freshman Mara Lazer, a pink-clad drummer, said she thought the group achieved its goal based on the reaction from the people they passed.

“I thought the drums were a nice addition,” Lazer said. “They added a lot of energy for sure. A lot of people seemed confused so they were turning around asking people, ‘What’s going on?'”

The procession ended in a candlelight vigil on Library Mall where the march had first begun about two hours earlier.

“Take Back the Night” coordinator Chynna Haas said the goal of the procession was to raise awareness about all forms of violence and to allow people to feel safe in their community.

She added though street safety is currently a big concern in the community following the homicide of UW junior Brittany Zimmermann, there are a lot of cases that do not receive media attention.

“Every minute there is a sexual assault taking place (nationwide),” Haas said. “We want to raise awareness, again not just about the high-profile situations, but for the things that happen and people don’t come forward.”

The rally started with about 30 students and community members gathering at Library Mall. It made its way up State Street to Capitol Square where it paused to hear keynote speaker DJ Doxtater, the aging and disability specialist for the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

The group then met up with the large, rowdy mob of pink on Carroll Street and made its way back to campus via Langdon behind a sign that read “Refuse 2B Abused!”

As the group crossed Library Mall to the fountain where the candlelight vigil would begin, they shouted their purpose, chanting “Whose night? Our night!”