Many students woke up earlier than usual Saturday morning and started tossing back some brews in honor of the annual Mifflin Street Block Party. The perfect weather, packed street and two stages of music made for a memorable block party yet again.
The Madison Police Department said Saturday's block party was the most heavily attended in years, and citations were up as well. By 9 p.m., 212 citations had been issued, mostly for open containers, glass bottles and underage drinking violations, compared to 164 citations last year.
There were also two more serious incidents. One involved a 19-year-old woman who told police she was sexually assaulted in the basement of a home on Mifflin. A person of interest in the assault was being questioned by MPD.
The other incident involved the fraternity Kappa Sigma. A wooden picture frame that came from an upper balcony of the fraternity house struck a 19-year-old woman. The victim suffered a deep head cut and was transported to the hospital, and police are still investigating the incident.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, was not able to give an official crowd estimate but said there were likely more than 20,000 attendees at this year's block party.
""Even with much more attendees than previous years, the citations given out by the police department were exactly half of what was in 2008,"" Verveer said. ""This is a victory if you will.""
Verveer said ideally there would be no arrests, but good weather leads more students to come to the block party and start drinking earlier, increasing the likelihood of problems.
Madison-based production company DCNY Pro sponsored the party. There were two music stages, sponsored by WSUM student radio and Maximum Ink Music Magazine, and some students said they made the block party much livelier than it was in previous years.
""The music keeps getting better and better every year. That's the one thing that does change,"" UW-Madison senior Lindsay Lubeck said. ""The cops are basically doing the same thing every year, but the music is always constantly improving.""
Another noticeable difference was a beer garden, which had not been part of the event since 1995. Hosted at the former Planned Parenthood site, the beer garden mostly attracted the ""senior citizens of the crowd,"" according to Verveer.
Verveer said few were surprised by the attendance at the beer garden, as it mostly supplied entertainment to people who were concerned about trespassing or were not comfortable drinking with the younger crowd. He said the beer garden was a success, though it is still up in the air whether it will continue next year because of space issues.
""Overall the event was a huge success, and that is not just me that is saying it, it's everyone—it's the police officers and the fire department, too,"" Verveer said. ""The crowd was positive, and everyone was in voluntary compliance. I am sure the weather greatly helped with the attitude of the crowd, too.""
UW-Madison freshman and first-time partygoer Jack Treacy said the block party lived up to his expectations.
""I expected there to be a lot of people, a lot of booze and a lot of fun, and that was pretty much what it was,"" Treacy said.
