Four years after supporting the Homegrown Halloween initiative, the Coalition for Alcohol and Drug Free Teenagers of Chapel Hill and Carrboro is back for more. In the aftermath of Monday’s Halloween celebration, the group called for an end to taxpayer dollars funding a “drunkfest” that “promotes underage drinking,” and even went so far as to suggest moving the event to East Carolina University. This latest call is an overreaction to a Chapel Hill tradition that is safer than the coalition wants the town to believe.
After the monstrous crowd of 2007, this coalition had firmer ground to stand on with its push for the Homegrown Halloween changes. That isn’t the case this year.
In this year’s crowd of 27,000 people, only one was arrested for possession of alcohol. Seven alcohol-related EMS calls were made, but only one of those led to hospitalization. And that was for a reaction a bar patron had to medication — hardly Halloween-specific.
Dale Pratt-Wilson, the coalition’s director, said she wants the University to sponsor the event or have it move to ECU altogether.
Aside from the fact that both schools also receive taxpayers’ money, UNC has said it would be impossible to hold an on-campus celebration.
UNC helps the town manage the event, which brings in thousands of dollars for local businesses. Although numbers for this year’s celebration aren’t available yet, the UNC Department of Public Safety gave $25,000 of personnel and equipment to manage last year’s event, along with another $20,000 to help reimburse some of the town’s costs.
This year’s crowd was about 8,000 people smaller than last year’s, but officials expect the final costs to be about the same or slightly smaller.
Even if the crowd were contained on campus, it might become more dangerous. Police, for instance, would have more difficulty controlling who gets in and what they have in their possession.
Downtown bars and restaurants would also stand to earn less on a day that is supposed to be one of the year’s most profitable.
