“Halloween this year is an experiment,” says George Twigg, spokesperson for Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. “The mayor wants to get away from past years and look at a new way of doing things.”
The city hopes to keep the festivities from getting too rowdy by cutting off the entrance at 1:30 a.m. and providing food carts and music. But the hardest factors to control are consumption of drugs and alcohol.
“The entertainment will hopefully give people an alternative,” says Twigg. During last year’s Halloween, he notes, Dane County detox filled all eight of its slots, and three more people had to be transferred to local hospitals.