MADISON, Wis. — When thousands of college students descended on the University of Wisconsin at Madison campus this weekend, Northwestern students weren’t left behind.
“Too bad I have to come to the town where my parents partied four years of their lives away to find a party,” said Ali Bryson, a Weinberg sophomore. “What is up with that?”
Bryson and scores of other NU students made the three-hour drive to Madison on Friday afternoon for what Weinberg sophomore Ethan Schmidt called “one of the biggest parties of the year — behind Mardi Gras and Times Square (on New Year’s Eve).”
Between 50,000 and 60,000 costumed revelers crowded the streets of Madison on Halloween for the festivities that began in 1977. Students from all over the Midwest crammed into off-campus parties and flooded State Street, one of the town’s main attractions. Many partyers wore skimpy costumes and were oblivious to the cold.
Two students dressed as Saturday Night Live’s “Ambiguously Gay Duo,” another three painted themselves blue as members of “Blue Man Group,” and a couple of people dressed as cardboard kissing booths.
Strutting down Monroe Street with a pack of friends, one guy in a pink bunny suit sported sunglasses and held a cell phone to his ear.
“Someone’s drunk and his name’s Bunny,” he chanted in the phone. “Someone’s drunk and his name’s Bunny.”
McCormick sophomore Hadi Akberali braved potential ridicule by wearing street clothes. Around 11:15 p.m. he and a few friends wandered into a party on Mifflin Street.
“There’s like a party at every house on every street!” he yelled over the pumping music. “We’ve been to like seven parties already!”
At the same party, Weinberg freshman Travis Creighton surveyed the scene with his roommate. Creighton said they took a bus to Madison because “the parties here are … so much better. Hot chicks, beer …” he trailed off.
As the party slowed, one of the home’s residents decided to enforce some rules.
“Pay for a cup or get off my porch!” she yelled out the front door, slamming it.
Groups of students migrated to State Street, where lines for bars and pizza parlors were out the door at 1:15 a.m. Friends held hands to avoid getting lost in the crowd.
Though police were present, they seemed more concerned about avoiding a repeat of last year’s riots than ticketing underage drinkers.
“They just seemed to be standing on the side (of the street),” said Jessica Thacher, a Medill sophomore. “It made me feel safer because I knew if something happened they would be there, but they weren’t really interfering with people partying.”
Although Weinberg sophomore Bethany Sharkey left Saturday morning with a set of tattered fairy wings and a pair of sore feet, she said she was determined to return to Madison.
“Madison is amazing,” she said. “I would definitely transfer to Madison if it didn’t mean leaving my friends and having to come to a new school knowing no one.”
