Freakfest, which has been held every year between 2006 and 2019, may be fading away. | PxHere.com
Freakfest, which has been held every year between 2006 and 2019, may be fading away. | PxHere.com
The Halloween festival long known as "Freakfest" may have already made its last run in Downtown Madison.
Organizers recently announced this year’s outing has been canceled, marking the third straight year the gated and ticketed event featuring big-name music acts, which dates back to 2006, has been scrapped.
While the change in planning was initially attributed to COVID-19 concerns, this year’s list of reasons include declining interest and the increased price of staging the event in Downtown Madison on the closest Saturday to Halloween.
Over the holiday weekend, city officials now have several family-friendly events scheduled for the area that target children and adults alike.
“This is a continuation of the thought process when the pandemic began,” 4th District Alderman Mike Verveer told Madison.com. “Perhaps Freakfest on State Street has outlived its useful life.”
Still, city officials have steered clear of making any longtime commitments or forecasts about future events, other than to say they are hoping to make the State Street area a place kids can associate with fun and adults can enjoy.
Over this year’s holiday weekend, city officials said the downtown area will have an increased police presence, as a larger-than-normal crowd is still expected.
Madison has long been a mecca for celebrating Halloween, going back to the days when thousands of revelers from across the Midwest would converge on the area in the 1980s and '90s, with the weekend of events sometimes even descending into chaos and arrests.
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