Tom Wangard and Brandon Sivret used to head a movement that directly challenged the city's Halloween plans.
Their Facebook group, ""Move Halloween to Langdon,"" quickly grew to 4,000 members after its July founding. But then Wangard and Sivret changed course after talks with Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. The two are now on board with the Mayor's plan and have renamed their group the Halloween Action Committee.
Wangard said he founded the group because he resented being charged $5 for the ""same old"" State Street celebration. He also objected to a 50,000-person limit that was prominent in the mayor's original plan. For his part, Sivret said erect gates along the street would ""cattle"" people in and escalate violence.
In addition, Wangard feared the process of taking tickets and granting admission would put many students in danger of being breathalized and arrested for underage drinking.
But when Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, confronted the pair in late August, Wangard and Sivret realized moving the festivities to Langdon would be a bad idea.
""There's nothing to do on Langdon,"" Sivret said. ""People just sit there and stare at each other all night.""
Wangard said he soon realized a 50,000-person limit would not stop people from attending State Street, although the city later made 80,000 tickets available.
""The city engineer did some number crunching and it turns out that the estimates from years past were way off,"" Wangard said, noting that if State Street and all of its bars and restaurants were full, there could not be more than 50,000 people present.
Sivret and Wangard insisted they negotiated with the city to give students more control over Halloween festivities.
""The last thing we wanted to do was all of a sudden become another arm of the city and try to con everybody into jumping on board with the mayor's plan,"" Sivret said.
Cieslewicz spokesperson George Twigg said the pair agreed with the reasoning behind the mayor's plan after they met.
""There wasn't a lot of brow beating on our part,"" Twigg said. ""We didn't twist their arms or anything like that.""
Wangard said the pair pushed the mayor to allow bands and a ""food court"" on Library Mall.
Sivret said several companies have since proposed future sponsorship if the event goes smoothly this year.
""Companies on the same level as Pepsi, Miller and Budweiser all want to sponsor it, but they don't want to assume the liability,"" Sivret said. ""The last thing they want is pictures over the Internet of a huge riot.""
