Fashionably late: Chapel Hill celebrates Halloween

It’s not a party if you show up on time.

Chapel Hill’s Halloween festivities saw a late start — and end — Monday night.

The celebration was set to run from 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., but Franklin Street closed to traffic 10 to 15 minutes late and the celebration ended about half an hour behind schedule.

Attendees said they enjoyed their night despite temperatures in the forties and early rain.

Katrina Doeder, a graduate student from Germany who came out for her first-ever Halloween, said she was impressed.

“Woop, woop,” she said. “It’s good, I love it.”

Lt. Kevin Gunter, spokesman for Chapel Hill police, said the town delayed closing Franklin to cars and opening it for revelers because traffic was light early in the evening. Police then re-opened the street around midnight to give crowds time to clear.

“It did start off a little slow,” he said. “Once you close a street, it doesn’t take long for the street to fill up.”

He said the crowd was roughly the same size as last year — about 35,000 people, though he didn’t make an official estimate as of 11 p.m. And like last year, the town had to delay street reopening for the sake of public safety.

“With this many people in streets it makes it difficult,” he said.

By 11 p.m, EMS had only received one call — from Linda’s Bar and Grill — and no cases of over-intoxication had been reported, Gunter said. In 2010, six EMS calls were made.

As of 11 p.m., Gunter said one arrest had been made for assault on a government official, but he said he couldn’t provide additional information on the arrest.

He said another person was detained at a safety checkpoint, but he couldn’t confirm an arrest.

Even one group that expected conflict — the Occupy Chapel Hill protestors — reported calm. Occupiers said they had feared heckling from drunken revelers, but they were not bothered as they sat in front of the courthouse.

Gunter said the low number of incidents probably resulted from a combination of factors — such as the town’s efforts to improve safety, the weather and the weeknight.

UNC graduate student Bonnie Lyon, who has been to three Halloween celebrations on Franklin, said the crowd seemed smaller this year.

“It’s Homegrown Halloween,” she said. “It’s good, it’s safe, it makes sense.”

The town initiative implemented in 2008 aims to reduce crowd sizes. Among other restrictions, it closes Franklin to revelers earlier than in past years and restricts alcohol sales and bar entry in the town after 1 p.m. The goal is to improve public safety.

And Dadne Ibarra, a 6-year-old from Durham who came with her family to join in the festivities, said her evening was exciting and she enjoyed seeing all of the costumes.

“They all look good.”Contact the City Editor

at city@dailytarheel.com.