Newcomers might be a little confused that UW-Madison students are charged $100 if they want to have a guest in their dorms over Halloween weekend.
But the policy likely has its roots in the rowdy annual Halloween parties that took over downtown Madison for years, sometimes with violent results. While Freakfest vanished with the COVID-19 pandemic, its ghosts continue to haunt Madison to this day. Here’s a look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly of Halloween on State Street.
🎃 Party on State Street
What would become Freakfest started as a small block party on State Street in 1977 when students and others would parade up and down the pedestrian street in their wildest costumes. Seeing that the idea was catching on, UW-Madison student government, then called the Wisconsin Students Association, officially sponsored the event as Halloween on State Street as a fundraiser.
When the drinking age went up in Wisconsin from 18 to 21 in 1986, the student government could no longer sell beer to raise money, and withdrew their involvement. But people kept coming to State Street every Halloween to party in the 1990s, although attendance went up and down from one year to the next. [Badger Herald]
👺 Things Get Wild
It was in the late ‘90s when crowds, including lots of out-of-towners, began swarming Halloween on State Street. While roughly thousands of costumed revelers attended in 1998, an estimated 60,000 people filled the streets by 2001. To put that into context, UW’s total fall enrollment was 51,822 in 2025.
🚨 From Parties to Riots
Things started to get out of hand in 2002, when a crowd of 65,000 included vandals who broke windows, assaulted others, looted stores, and caused property damage to State Street businesses.
Every year until 2005, when 100,000 people stormed State Street, the event ended with Madison police using tear gas to disperse the crowd. City officials agreed that something needed to change.
👻 The Freakfest Era
In 2006, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz declared that the State Street Halloween celebration would be renamed Freakfest and would become an organized, controlled event. Fencing was put up around State Street, entrants were charged admission, and Frank Productions booked bands like Ok Go, Third Eye Blind, and Lil Yachty.
While some bemoaned the tamer, more controlled nature of Freakfest, the event was a big hit by every measure, with big crowds and relatively few arrests. [Cap Times, Fox47, Isthmus]
🪦 End of An Era
Freakfest was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was never resurrected due to a lack of funding and support. But with Halloween being on a Saturday this weekend, if you head down to State Street I’ll bet you’ll see plenty of costumed partiers, ghosts of the old days. [Badger Herald]
