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How freaky was Freakfest?

Wow! Incredibly tame.

Maybe because, as you can see from this video -- once you make it past the man in shorts -- the City of Madison put 200 cops on State Street:

The Wisconsin State Journal reports:

Freakfest started as an attempt by city officials to take a muscular approach to trying to stop the violence that marred earlier incarnations of Madison's once-informal Halloween gathering...

Musical acts were added, with entrance to State Street barred to those without tickets....

Views differed on whether turning it into a ticketed event has been a good idea or a big bummer.

"Seven dollars kills the fun," said Alex Dallas, 21, of Madison, dressed as a Southern farmer. "It's too regulated now."

Southern farmer?

Earlier in the evening, Annie Badame, co-owner of Sacred Feather, a hat store on State Street, watched the crowds approvingly. She was selling merchandise on the sidewalk Saturday evening and stayed open until 10 p.m.

"We've been here 34 years, so we've seen it all," she said, recalling times when she had to put Crisco oil on the building's rain gutters so people couldn't shimmy up them. "We're very pleased with the direction this has taken. It's very, very positive."

Do you remember the old days, the Crisco days? Back to last night's scene:

A group of Christians took to the street to proselytize, one with a giant wooden cross that some mistook for part of a costume.

But it wasn't a costume. Because Christians ordinarily tote giant wooden crosses. No, it wasn't a costume because the Christians really did want to save all the souls.

Tana Schirmer, 25, a stay-at-home mom from Rio, said she had no particular costume in mind when she donned a mini-skirt, a spaghetti strap top and a tiara. "I just wanted to be wild."

Pressed to describe her outfit, she spontaneously decided she was a "stripper princess for Obama."

... Jason Peters, 26, a graduate student in genetics, wore a geometric cardboard contraption on his head, a body suit and a long, stripped tail.

"I'm phage lambda, a virus that attacks bacteria, specifically the E. coli bacteria," he said. People who can't guess his costume at least appreciate the effort, he said.

Well, that about sums up the difference between males and females, don't you think?

Full post as published by Althouse on November 02, 2008 (boomark / email).