It worked again. 

For the second year in a row, police needed little more than plastic fencing and some strategically placed horses to peacefully clear the crowd on State Street after Madison's annual Halloween celebration.

No major incidents were reported and there were even fewer arrests than last year, when they dropped nearly 60 percent after city officials for the first time gated the street, added live music and charged admission to the traditional party, renamed Freakfest. Estimated attendance was similar to last year, at a little more than 34,000, police said.

The changes started last year were an attempt to civilize and downsize the party, which ended with pepper spray and mini-riots from 2002 through 2005.

After two successful years, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz on Sunday went so far as to say Halloween in Madison has been "transformed."

"This was the most successful Halloween on State Street in several years," he said at the end of the night. "The  strategy we started last year has resulted in a whole new tone for the event."

Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said 120 arrests had been made as of 2 a.m. Sunday, most of them for alcohol violations. That's down from 148 during last year's event, he noted, and 334 made during the 2005 party.

Combining Friday and Saturday night arrests shows a total of 175 for this year's event compared to 235 last year. In 2005, the year before the city corralled the bash, there were 232 arrests on the Friday before the main event.

No serious property damage or serious injuries were reported, DeSpain said.

Mayoral aide Joel Plant, the city's former alcohol policy czar, also described the party � which featured three live music stages, a huge costume contest and more food than last year � as a big success.

"Everyone is quite happy with the result," Plant said while watching the last groups of people leave State Street around 2 a.m. Sunday. "The mood, the attitude, was very positive and very friendly. It was a very fun crowd. I never felt the edge I have in past years."

In fact, a good part of the crowd left of its own accord early Sunday, about an hour before the event ended. Others moved from marching up and down the street to standing outside bars in lines that were still a dozen or more people deep outside some establishments by 1 a.m.

Kelly Meuer, owner of State Street Brats, said he did good business during the night � though not any more than any other busy football weekend, he added � and he agreed with police and city officials that the general vibe during the night and early morning was positive.

"As far as incidents go, the mood of the crowd is the best it's been in five years," Meuer said.

Little hostility seen

Throughout the night, there seemed to be little hostility between costumed partygoers and the police, who posed for pictures and mostly hung back to keep watch on the festivities.

At 1:20 a.m. Sunday � ten minutes before the party's official end � the mood darkened a bit and some people were briefly confused when officers suddenly placed barricades across major intersections along State Street and started directing the people to leave through designated exits.

Officers on horseback also rode slowly through the middle of the street to move people to the sidewalks.

By 2 a.m., State Street was mostly cleared.

Plant said the event clearly met two of the three goals officials set for it: ending without incident and reducing the cost to taxpayers, although that cost is still expected to top $500,000. A third goal, to reduce alcohol abuse at the event, is harder to measure, Plant said, but appears to have been at least partially met, given the lack of destructive incidents associated with the party.

Some 270 Madison police officers were assigned to handle State Street and the surrounding area Saturday during Freakfest � the corporate moniker for this year's event. Fifty more came from the Dane County Sheriff's office, and there was also help from University Police, the State Patrol and police from Middleton, Fitchburg and Sun Prairie, according to Dane County Lt. Kurt Pierce.

Some revelers were miffed at having to buy a ticket to get onto State Street, but others said it was worth it for the sense of security it helped provide.

"I don't mind paying for it if I know they're (police) going to be there," said a plastic-evergreen clad Erin Rice, 22, who was celebrating her first Madison Halloween dressed as "obnoxiously early Christmas decorations."

The new approach appeared to be drawing a crowd that could best be described as strange and orderly.

As afternoon turned into night, Red-clad Badger fans were slowly displaced by the walking dead; by a black angel walking arm-in-arm with a tall Dalmation; by caped super-heroes and gladiators and assorted walking fruit.

At Peace Park, a man dressed as the pope and one dressed as a Green Bay Packers pimp stood by the portable bathrooms and smoked.

The two were with a football posse headed by Saint Vince Lombardi, who wore a bishop's hat with a picture of the football legend and carried a scepter. With him was a group that included a cowardly Detroit Lion, and a grim reaper who reportedly rode to State Street in his own hearse, with the license plate G REAPER.

The group, mostly from Oregon, has been coming to State Street for many years and said they approve of the efforts to tame the celebration.

"Paying five dollars to offset the costs to the city is more than reasonable," said John O'Neill, wearing the Lombardi costume. "I pay that much for a beer."

For some, the more sedate Halloween is welcome.

"I think the bottom line is, something just had to be done," said Madison resident Bill Rushmore, who was walking along State Street with his wife early in the evening, taking in the sights before things got too crazy.

And business owners, many of whom were happily catering to partygoers Saturday afternoon, didn't seem too worried about what the night might hold.

"It's just like any big event," said Charlie Rogers, who was working at the Sacred Feather hat store. "You have 98 percent here that have a good time and 2 percent that are jerks."

Wants "more excitement"

Not everyone was happy to see Halloween civilized. Several revelers complained about having to pay to get onto a city street and said the tickets and the police presence had put a damper on the event.

"A little more excitement couldn't hurt," said UW-Madison sophomore Carolyn Rauber, dressed as a police call box.

Matt Dennin, a Bouncer at Mondays bar on State, said he'd worked Halloween for the last four years, including three as a bartender at BW Threes.

He said police were "overly aggressive" in past years. "I think they may sometimes more aggravate the crowd" than control it, he said.

From the second floor of the Fire Department Building, 325 W. Johnson St., law enforcement official kept watch on the proceedings below via three large projector screens with feeds from the street below. The cameras are able to turn nearly 360 degrees and zoom in on groups of people or even individuals below.

"I feel like cattle in a corral," yelled one man as he waited in a long line to get into Freakfest at about 11:30 p.m. at State and Lake streets.

But the rollicking party still holds its charms.

Roland Ramos, who was strolling down State Street with a group of friends from the Philippines earlier in the evening, was enjoying himself immensely. Ramos and his buddies are in Madison for two months as part of a corporate training program. They stopped a couple dressed as Ninja warriors and snapped photos, first of the couple and then of each other with the couple.

"It's like nothing we've ever experienced," said Ramos of Halloween on State Street.

And how does Ramos celebrate Halloween in the Philippines?

"We go to the cemetery to visit with dead relatives,'' he said. "But that's nothing like this.''

State Journal reporters Chris Rickert, Ron Seely, Deborah Ziff and Karen Rivedal contributed to this report.