Members of a city committee said they expect larger crowds at this year’s Freakfest and highlighted details of new projects that are in the works for the city at a meeting on Thursday.
The committee made their annual decision to make the Freakfest area a glass-free zone, similar to the Mifflin Street Block Party, from the evening of Oct. 26 to the morning of Oct. 28. This has been a rule for the past decade because of riots that broke out following State Street’s earlier, unregulated Halloween celebration.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the glass-free zone does not go into effect until 9 p.m. Oct. 27 because in the gated area of Freakfest, several liquor establishments that sell alcohol when the gates open at 7 p.m. He added there will be signs outside the Freakfest gates notifying people of the rules.
Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said he is looking forward to this year’s Freakfest and said it has drawn more attention and interest from students than it has in years.
“From Mac Miller and Big G, students are actually starting to think about going to Freakfest for the music,” Resnick said. “There’s a better quality of music and more buzz in general.”
According to Verveer, Frank Productions, which sponsors the music for Freakfest, has spent more money on talent this year than in previous years. He said Frank Productions was receptive to criticism it received from students about the lower quality of talent in previous years.
The city plans to have a meeting about Freakfest with members of police, the promotions manager from Frank productions, members of the City Council and others Thursday, Oct. 18.
Verveer also said Mayor Paul Soglin’s capital budget allocated funds to add more surveillance cameras downtown due to the heightened crime over the summer.
At the meeting, Resnick said the city will hold a meeting next week with downtown cab companies to discuss his proposal to fill the gap the discontinuation of SAFEcab left. He added Associated Students of Madison supports this idea because it promotes safe transportation for students.
Resnick said his idea is to create a zone around the downtown area between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. that would allow cabs to give rides to any number of people for one flat fee, similar to airport taxi services. He said the amount of the flat fee is still undetermined.
Executive Director of the Central Business Improvement District Mary Carbine introduced a project she is working on called the Collective Community Ban, which bans shoplifters from all stores in the program if they are caught shoplifting at one.
“It’s similar to a shopping center because if it happens in a mall, you’re banned from the whole mall,” Carbine said.
According to Carbine, the project will launch this fall.
