With another Halloween celebration comes a fair amount of grumbling from students who remember a time before Freakfest came to town. Although the Halloweens of State Street’s past ended in riots four years in a row, it was a free-form festival at the whims of the students and visitors.

So it is no surprise students tried to relive this revelry elsewhere.

Earlier this week, a group of University of Wisconsin students began posting signs on Mifflin Street heralding a “free and unregulated” Halloween party on Saturday. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, met with the group in an attempt to dissuade the students from carrying out their plans. Yesterday, the three main organizers threw in the towel after pressure from city leaders and their neighbors.

While we recognize the appeal of an alternative celebration or an attempt to end the concert/party hybrid on State Street, the idea of “Mifflin over Freakfest” was a rushed, haphazard plan that had the potential to cause more mischief for police to handle — or, most likely, be a complete bust of a party.

First off, to plan and advertise a street-wide soiree mere days beforehand usually results in disaster. The fact that the group informed Verveer in their meeting Wednesday there would be no entertainment or alcohol sales at the shindig indicates the lack of creativity or cohesiveness in their vision.

Furthermore, Madison Police Department Capt. Mary Schauf has already stated police will include two fewer platoons of officers at this year’s Freakfest celebration. If police had spread themselves between State Street, Mifflin and numerous other incidents that will likely occur through the night, things could have gotten out of control very quickly. Worse yet, no one may have shown up.

While we disagree with the rogue party-planners in their ramshackle organization, there is merit in changing the format. The last three years have been relatively peaceful, attendance has been down, and there’s been no hint of the wild rioting and rampant destruction of the more recent unregulated years. While Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and MPD Chief Noble Wray would likely argue, “Don’t mess with success,” the spirit of the Saturday night social is being consistently cramped by sparsely populated streets, corporate sponsorship and the regrettably popular jam band haze of O.A.R.

While tear gas and pepper spray aren’t exactly the fondest of memories, we miss the days when we could take control of the streets for a one night, topsy-turvey parade of our making. In the next year or two, the city and students should make real efforts to compromise on a way to restore Halloween’s former glory without bringing back the chaos.