First off, you should be doing this instead, it is a great tradition that needs to get off the ground despite the construction:
http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=578387

But I know some people will still end up on Franklin St anyways since it is one of the biggest street parties in the southeast reaching 80,000+ people at times, so I thought it was worth discussing as well.

They made some efforts to keep it from getting so big last year bringing it down to 45,000 people which one the one hand I was disappointed about at first, but it also meant a much higher percentage of the attendees were there in costume rather than just showing up, and it meant actual walking room on the street whereas in years past it has been a little sardine like when you get close to the center of town. And I guess I can understand why they'd cut the size, since the town & university have to pitch in together to afford to facilitate & clean up after the event at a cost of $221,000+... it is pretty cool that they go to such lengths of spending all that money & shutting down the street to facilitate Halloween celebrations.

A few tips for getting downtown I've used in the past. Ride a bus into downtown early before the street is closed off at 9pm, & ride a bus out at the end. Park at a friend's place who lives nearby and walk b/c Chapel Hill has sidewalks everywhere. Park at the University Mall where lots of cabs tend to congregate & pay like 3 bucks to get a ride & be dropped off as close as possible to Franklin St & then take a cab or bus back to University Mall.

Here are a few pics from looking up franklin street halloween on flickr:








Whose going?

10/8/2009 12:33:16 PM

I might.

10/8/2009 12:56:20 PM

http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/difficulties/whoswhose.html

10/8/2009 1:00:31 PM

Quote :

"They made some efforts to keep it from getting so big last year bringing it down to 45,000 people which one the one hand I was disappointed about at first, but it also meant a much higher percentage of the attendees were there in costume rather than just showing up, and it meant actual walking room on the street whereas in years past it has been a little sardine like when you get close to the center of town."

.

Also, my going

10/8/2009 1:06:10 PM

OMG Ernie, i know i usually hate you and stuff...

but seriously, that just made me LOL in my super quiet office and now everyone is looking at me wondering if i'm gonna forward the funny email or not

10/8/2009 1:07:16 PM

lol it's esgargs

10/8/2009 1:09:47 PM

This is a video from a couple of years back when the pirate theme was big b/c of the PotC movies:



& check out pic 41 here:
http://www.wral.com/news/local/image_gallery/1990932/

[Edited on October 8, 2009 at 1:15 PM. Reason : .]

10/8/2009 1:11:59 PM

Quote :

"lol it's esgargs"

did he go as himself?

10/8/2009 1:24:48 PM

^I tried to find out, & I found his photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gargs/page5/

Here are a few random pics I found while looking:



I'm not sure if this guy is going for the blue man group look, or the Tobias from arrested development blue man group look. And here is another disturbing image just for fun:

10/8/2009 1:57:28 PM

Chapel Hill sucks!

(I love the first sentence in this thread, hehe)



I'm too poor for an ad: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172037588034&ref=mf

10/8/2009 2:24:53 PM

fuck you and your fairy party.

10/8/2009 2:25:39 PM

...will be far superior than Halloween on Hillsborough Street. As is the norm.

10/8/2009 2:26:23 PM

"I'm too poor for an ad"

No prob. I doubt it'll require any advertisement next year when the constructions done & hillsborough street is "revitalized." Franklin Streets will probably get progressively smaller over the next couple of years too. So I think those factors combined will make Hboro take off in 2010. This might be the last last hoorah for Franklin St.

10/8/2009 5:49:51 PM

dude did i just see esgargs lol

10/8/2009 7:20:58 PM

http://www.astray.com/static/earth-huge.png
http://www.nbbd.com/godo/ef/images/0707mapHuge.jpg
http://www.geobabble.org/~hnw/neon/withindomainrep2/withindomainrep2.neon0.clustdist2.huge.png

[Edited on October 13, 2009 at 9:16 PM. Reason : oh come now]

10/8/2009 7:24:11 PM

IS DAT SUM ESGARGS?

10/8/2009 7:26:10 PM

6800px × 8800px

10/8/2009 7:37:22 PM

Quote :

"http://www.wral.com/news/local/image_gallery/1990932/"

picture 13 was by FAAAR the best

10/8/2009 7:55:30 PM

unnecessarily large

10/8/2009 9:22:11 PM

Halloween on Franklin '09...are you ready bitch?
http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2212711877
385 members

10/13/2009 9:09:29 PM

i don't know what people mean by "better" than other halloween options. if better means more people, then yes you are correct.

imo halloween on franklin street was cool the first 500 times everyone went (hello, high school) and in the beginning of college when you aren't worried about getting into bars anyway. but now standing around in a herd in the middle of the street unable to move just doesn't seem appealing to me.

seeing the costumes is like the only perk. and i saw some pretty cool costumes on hillsb. last year.

that said, i think i'm going to charlotte this year for halloween.

10/13/2009 9:20:18 PM

Quote :

"seeing the costumes is like the only perk."

You can go bar hopping any time, I think the costume perk is a pretty much the main selling point to, and that's not a bad thing. And the more people thing is good in so far as it means more costumes & more creativity, especially with group costumes.

Quote :

"i don't know what people mean by "better" than other halloween options."

Has anyone said one option is better than the other?

10/13/2009 9:25:25 PM

i just don't see the appeal year after year but that is just me.

and yes people have in this thread and the other one!

its cool to go a few times but after that i just don't get it. i mean yea, the costumes are different but standing in an unmoving group in the street just isn't that fun TO ME.

[Edited on October 13, 2009 at 9:27 PM. Reason : to me.]

10/13/2009 9:27:25 PM

Did you go last year? They cut down the size from around 80k to 45k, its no longer overly packed (although still one of the biggest events in the Southeast), and there was a much higher percentage of people in costumes.

10/13/2009 9:29:37 PM

oh i guess the only times i've been were in highschool and college and it was so huge and too many douchebags and people touching me and vomming and just annoying all around

perhaps it IS better now. also they took my plastic sword that i stupidly brought because i forgot about the rules. sigh. how are you supposed to be a pirate without a sword?!

10/13/2009 9:30:56 PM

Quote :

"that said, i think i'm going to charlotte this year for halloween"

does charlotte have a street party too? where? when?

10/13/2009 9:37:26 PM

oh i have no idea

probably not

i'm just going to charlotte that weekend

10/13/2009 9:38:24 PM

thank the flying spaghetti monster that huge pic is gone, this thread is finally legible again

10/13/2009 10:52:39 PM

I know the Franklin St Halloween page has a wikipedia page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_on_Franklin_Street

Does the one for Hillsborough?

10/23/2009 2:12:45 PM

Halloween Bumped.

10/31/2009 12:12:12 AM

the two yrs i went i thought it was very over-rated

but whatever floats your boat i guess

10/31/2009 12:50:08 AM

Remember, Franklin Street closes to traffic at 9. So either get downtown by then, or fine somewhere to park & walk from, or take a cab in. I'm going to take a bus in while they are still running in about an hour or so and hang out with friends on campus until 9 when the street starts getting a lot of walkers.

10/31/2009 5:18:08 PM

Wow, I was wrong about Franklin St. I thought it would keep losing ground, but apparently with 1 year of practice, everyone knew how to get around the franklin st access restrictions, and WRAL & other sites are reporting that Franklin St was up to 50,000 this year, which is 15,000 more than last year.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/6323062/

They are reporting 6,500 for Hillsborough St which is a nice improvement from last year too.

11/1/2009 3:05:04 PM

Their was a lot more people there last night versus last year. I parked at some tire service place off of hillsborough st. It was across from shopping center. I can't remember the name of it.

I saw a few residences that were charging $10 to park in there yard. If lived around Franklin St., I would be doing the same thing.

I wonder what the Chapel Hill Town Council will thing about the attendance increase. I bet they will try and check IDs next year.

[Edited on November 1, 2009 at 3:37 PM. Reason : ..]

11/1/2009 3:36:06 PM

I doubt it. The old mayor who pushed big for the downsizing of halloween will be out of office by the time the next halloween roles around. His push to kill it failed.

11/1/2009 4:18:45 PM

11/1/2009 7:50:12 PM

I guess my crew wasn't the only one rockin' Pac-Man

[Edited on November 1, 2009 at 8:11 PM. Reason : glad we stayed around hillsborough st.]

11/1/2009 8:10:40 PM

Seeing that Iron Man & Barrel Monster on Franklin St were probably some of the high lights of the night for me in terms of costume observation.

11/1/2009 10:22:03 PM

I was thinking that was War Machine, not Iron Man.

11/2/2009 7:08:54 AM

^

11/2/2009 7:19:55 AM

Prototype Ironman

11/2/2009 7:27:48 AM

I saw the greased up deaf guy (from family guy) running down Franklin Street (you're never gonna catch me...you're wasting your time...better luck next year!)

11/2/2009 9:04:42 AM

Quote :

"I was thinking that was War Machine, not Iron Man."

I asked him, he was not War Machine.

11/2/2009 9:48:51 AM

http://www.wral.com/news/local/image_gallery/6325274/
more pics from WRAL

11/2/2009 12:05:46 PM