Madison police say their plan for handling Saturday's Freakfest on State Street is adequate even if a free, illegal Mifflin Street block party springs up to compete with it, but city officials are trying to avoid testing the premise.

Ald. Mike Verveer, 4th District, met with organizers of the alternate event on Mifflin Street Wednesday night. Reached by cell phone around 11:30 p.m., he and one of the party's organizers, UW-Madison student Christian von Preysing-Barry, said they had come to no agreement to cancel the Mifflin party.

But Verveer said he was hoping to set up a meeting soon, perhaps today, between organizers and city higher-ups.

"They have a list of concerns that they'd like to articulate to city officials," Verveer said.
Von Preysing-Barry, a 21-year-old  journalism student, said he "wouldn't negotiate canceling my own party" but wanted to talk with other city officials about Freakfest being "too sterile to be fun."

Earlier Wednesday, he said he understood where the city was coming from "as far as trying to protect public security and public decency, but this isn't a pretext to start a riot or be vandals or start violence. It's just an alternative to State Street becoming far too regulated to be any fun at all."

Central District Police Capt. Mary Schauf said Wednesday police have enough strength planned for Saturday night to handle any impromptu party.

Joel Plant, assistant to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said no permit has been issued for a Mifflin Street gathering.

Verveer, who's been deeply involved in planning for Freakfest, said he's disappointed that the Mifflin Street block party organizers haven't bought into the more controlled version of Halloween on State Street.

"We have enough to do to keep State Street as safe and fun as possible," Verveer said. "I would hate to see this group detract from all the positive strides we've made on State Street. And I would hate to see these students end up with thousands of dollars in fines."

Schauf said police have already assigned 24 officers to patrol side streets for the house parties. If that's not enough, she said, police can shift some of the 200 or so officers from the main State Street area to other sites.

— State Journal reporter Chris Rickert contributed to this report.