Thousands Swarm Streets for Wisc. Party (Mifflin Str)

[rodeodance]

BTW-this story listed as News in NYTimes (AP). The Mifflin Str Party has a long tradition.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Block-Party.html

May 1, 2005
Thousands Swarm Streets for Wisc. Party
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 3:26 a.m. ET

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- An estimated 20,000 students filled the streets for an annual spring block party near the University of Wisconsin -- a celebration that has been marred in previous years by riots, a man falling from a balcony and sexual assault.

More than 100 police officers patrolled a three-block area during the annual Mifflin Street festivities near campus, where many students crowded balconies and clutched red and blue plastic caps filled with beer. No major disturbances were reported Saturday.

''For the most part, the students' demeanor has been pretty good,'' police chief Noble Wray said. But, he added, authorities took action against houses that ''had lost control.''....


Music blared from stereos and several bands played during the fete, a University of Wisconsin-Madison tradition started by Vietnam War protesters in 1969.

[darkism]

1. WHY DIDN'T I GO TO SCHOOL THERE

WHY did I have to pick a school in red state hell?

At least I transferred out. :)

[rodeodance]

2. we are still blue--but red is creeping in big time (Rep. Stensenbrenner

as the most recent example).

[blogbear]

3. It has been a long time since I've studied art or primary colors..

But isn't the color blue comprised of red pigmentation?

[Art_from_Ark]

5. Red and blue are both primary colors

[theHandpuppet]

4. And this is news WHY?

Sorry, but the UW student block party doesn't show up on my LBN radar.

[rodeodance]

6. like I said--AP had it listed under "news"--

[madrchsod]

7. well the kids settled down abit,i guess

wasn`t quite warm enough to be the party started . i suppose this is news but it`s just spring in madison...

[R Hickey]

8. I was in that party thirty years ago. It was a riot.

Sometimes in the past the Madison authorities would try to prevent the party from happening, other years they just go with the flow.

Mifflin Street was where the hippies lived. The Mifflin Street Co-op is still there...People would taunt the police, who always wanted to close off the block, and the police would ride up and down the street, with metal screens over their squad cars, so the flying beer bottles would do less damage. Occationally the cops would spot a trouble maker on a crowded porch of one of the old appartment houses, and get out of their squad cars to charge up the steps and try to make an arrest.

Some students mocked the police by riding around on bicycles, while holding wire screens in front of their handle bars. It was all the rage.

[Dudley_DUright]

9. Me too R

I went to UW-River Falls, but I had some friends that attended UW-Madison and had a house right on Mifflin Street in the heart of the action. I went down a few years for the parties. Good times. :party: :toast:

[hippiechick]

10. You were a Falcon ?

:bounce:

Falcon hockey rocks ! (well, ok, one of the coaches rocks) and the campus looks gorgeous, even if the general area is sorta conservative.

I'm a UWGB Alum, myself. :hi:

[Dudley_DUright]

11. Yup, I am a proud alumni of section O in the hockey arena

The rowdiest, drunkest bunch of hockey fans ever to watch the game. They won the small school national championship one of the years I was there. It is a very nice campus, and the Twin Cities are just a short hop away (which is where I did my Ph.D. work, at the U of M).