Friday night ends safely; 25 arrested

By Quinn Craugh

Friday night proved to be a dress rehearsal for Saturday night’s Freakfest 2007, as partygoers braved the cold wearing as little as possible and police bobbed and weaved down State Street acting only when necessary.

By the end of the night, not much action was needed. Madison Police Department Public Information Officer Joel DeSpain said authorities made 25 arrests by 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Of those, he said nothing appeared serious except for one incident that involved a man waking up in an ambulance after passing out and punching some paramedics. The paramedics did not suffer major injuries.

He also said officers spotted a number of seemingly intoxicated females walking alone, “which was alarming.”

Despite that, DeSpain said the streets were cleared and nothing had to be closed off. He said it seemed just like any other weekend night, with the exception of nearly 400 officers from five local departments walking State Street and patrolling the surrounding areas.

“We’re out there hunting for bear,” DeSpain said. “We just didn’t find any bear.”

Police came to the conclusion by the end of the night that fewer people visited State Street than the Friday before Freakfast last year. Crowd levels were estimated at a few thousand people, and Madison police central district captain Mary Schauf said it was “thin.”

DeSpain said police have no real good explanations for the reasons behind the smaller crowds. He said perhaps the temperatures in the low 40s had something to do with it, or maybe as one UW-Madison student put it, “I didn’t mean to come down here on purpose.”

And while State Street had plenty of elbow room, it gave people the opportunity to catch a glimpse of what the scene Saturday may look like. The unique costumes partygoers wore ranged from one man dressed as Snow White to three men dressed in nothing at all and running down the street with only thongs concealing certain body parts.

Still, if Friday night’s crowd demonstrated the type of enthusiasm people now have for the event, Saturday’s horde could turn out to be a hoax.

“It’s stupid,” said UW-Madison sophomore Torrie Rinehart, adding her disdain for having to pay money to gain access to a public street. “Honestly it’s our f-ing street; we can go here [for free] every other day of the week.”

As of Thursday, 7,500 people purchased tickets for “Freakfest 2007 brought to you by Mountain Dew.”