Frank, are you partaking?

Madison tries new tricks to keep peace for Halloween
Revelers will face a $5 cover, State Street will be fenced off and private security will patrol.
Paul Levy, Star Tribune
Last update: October 27, 2006 – 11:37 PM

Fun-loving college students in costumes trick-or-treating? Or police in riot gear dousing revelers with pepper spray? Either way, it will cost a $5 cover charge for tens of thousands of Halloween celebrants in Madison, Wis., this year.
"Honestly, I do not think the $5 will change much of anything," said Jenny Manogue, 22, a University of Minnesota senior from Janesville, Wis., who attended last year's celebration, where about 450 people were arrested. "If anything it will make the situation even more chaotic."
After years of Halloween celebrations estimated to have attracted 75,000 people to State Street and ended with police arresting several hundred midnight revelers, city officials in Madison are trying new tactics tonight. In addition to the cover charge, they will fence off State Street and add private security.
Minnesotans caught blame for some of the rowdiness in recent years, but comparatively few of them were arrested. In 2004, for example, police nabbed 62 of them from four Minnesota schools.
As many as 3,000 Minnesotans might be enrolled in undergraduate programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, although it is unclear how many of them attend the celebrations.
Hundreds, perhaps thousands of students enrolled at Minnesota universities took part, but last year so did students from 22 other states.
This year's new admission fee is expected to cover a chunk of the $600,000 in public safety costs, said George Twigg, a spokesman for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
But Manogue, one of the many Minnesota students who have gone to Madison for the celebration, said $5 a head hardly ensures a trouble-free event.
"How do they plan on forcing thousands of intoxicated people to form single lines in which IDs will be checked and five dollars will be collected?" she asked.
Manogue, a public relations major, doubted that the cover charge would scare away students from Minnesota or other college campuses throughout the Midwest who have adopted Halloween in Madison as a rite of passage, pepper spray and all.
"The majority of college students have to be willing to throw down at least $5 in cover charges at bars or house parties on the weekends," she said. "And none of those bars or parties offer what State Street does for Halloween."
Last year, police arrested 447 people during a weekend Halloween celebration that city and University of Wisconsin officials considered one of the mildest that Madison had seen in years.
After a stressful 2003 celebration that involved bonfires and broken windows, former Madison City Council President Mike Verveer concluded that most of the revelers arrested that Friday night were Minnesota residents.
"This means that Minnesota people are more hard-core in general," Verveer said three years ago. "It's unacceptable. They gave a black eye to all the out-of-town revelers."
Verveer did not return phone calls this week from the Star Tribune.
Won't be on hand
A tongue-and-cheek Minnesota Daily column that Mat Koehler wrote just before that celebration said that 98 percent of the University of Minnesota population was heading to Madison. Koehler, now 22 and a May graduate of the U of M, doesn't intend to join this year's party.
"Even if you charge $5, you're going to get 75,000 [celebrants] on State Street," he said. "And in Madison, where you're encouraging a giant crowd to mix with alcohol, anything can happen.
"It's not because of the Minnesota people -- although I think the hockey riots we had in Dinkytown when we won the national championships may have been worse than what goes on in Madison. I don't know. I'm not much of a partyer. Maybe some people just like to get pepper-sprayed."
Revelers from 23 states were arrested last year, said Joel Plant, Madison's alcohol policy coordinator. Many of the arrests were for underage drinking, he said.
"It's not just the consumption, but the mass overconsumption of alcohol that's filled our detox centers and emergency rooms," Plant said.
In addition to the cover charge and other changes this year, a promoter was hired to arrange live music and keep the atmosphere festive.
"So what do you do with this nonevent, where the entertainment in the past has been police in riot gear?" asked Susan Schmitz, president of Downtown Madison Inc. "You can't stop this because it's not an organized event, but maybe if you put some organization to it, it can be an event.
"We want people to come from out of town. Minnesota folks come here. They stay at the hotels. A lot have friends at the university. It's easy for the city to say it's the out-of- town folks that cause the problem. It's a small group. They're from all over."
This year, Manogue won't be among them.
"I think it is ridiculous to blame Minnesota kids for the problems in Madison," she said. "Yes, there is definitely an influx of students from other colleges, but they all bring money into Madison that weekend. Plus, isn't Madison supposed to be one of the top party schools in the country? If that is the case, I do not see how a few hundred U of M students amidst their population could create so much harm."
So why did she decide not follow the witches and goblins to Madtown this year?
"I went last year, and I thought it was a bit overrated. Of course, I have never seen a sea of people all dressed in costumes roaming the city streets. But, that was all we did all night -- roam the streets.
"This year my friends and I are all old enough to go to the bars in Minneapolis."