Madison’s Central Business Improvement District highlighted aspects of this year’s Freakfest that appeal to local businesses in a meeting Wednesday night.
BID Executive Director Mary Carbine said the organization uses Freakfest to market and promote downtown Madison, noting the event generated a negative image when Freakfest was not a gated event.
“Before, it was a problem with property damage and injuries,” Carbine said. “The system in place now has turned it around.”
The entertainment lineup for this year’s Freakfest include performances by Mac Miller and Big Gigantic, choices that Fred Frank of Frank Productions, the event’s promoted, said will hopefully benefit local businesses by upping attendance.
“We wanted to make an emphasis on bringing in music that is more focused to the university crowd,” Frank said. “It’s a coup for us to get talent like that.”
Frank said the event’s partnership with the local Pepsi distributor has proved to be beneficial for Freakfest. Pepsi will be promoting their new product, Doc 360, at the event. Freakfest will now have a VIP section available for a higher ticket cost, in which Pepsi will provide free cans of Doc 360.
The VIP sections will have a limited capacity, their own port-a-potties, a special entrance and view of the stage, Frank added.
Madison.com will join Frank Productions in co-sponsoring 2012’s traditional Halloween event. Frank said Madison.com is hosting another website, freakfestlive.com, to provide as much information as possible about the event. This website will include maps with parking locations and gates, as well as ticketing information. Frank also noted the event is making strides with social media, particularly on Facebook.
Frank said that he expects the event to sell out. Last year’s Freakfest nearly reached capacity at 50,000 attendees, despite the fact that it was scheduled on the same day as a home football game.
Madison Police Central District Lt. Kristen Roman said police expect to see issues outside the event’s locations.
“It still requires a significant number of personnel to address issues in spillover,” Roman said. “With homecoming and the football game ending at about the time this starts, we have a different traffic plan to deal with people getting out of the isthmus area in the most effective way.”
Roman added the access to businesses is not dramatically affected as State Street transitions to Freakfest gating. The police will do as much as possible to limit the impact on businesses, Roman said.
Police will process arrests at the City County Building this year. Last year, that procedure took place at locations within the event gates.
“We have seen such a decrease in the number of arrests,” Roman said. “It doesn’t warrant the staff we would dedicate. It will be the same protocol, just different locations.”
Residents in the areas that will be blocked off for Freakfest will receive two complimentary tickets and a letter explaining how to obtain more, according to Kelli Lamberty, community events supervisor for the City of Madison. Businesses will receive the same number of tickets as in previous years. The tickets are expected to be delivered next week.
