Howl lines decrease, arrests increase
College-aged individuals from throughout Utah and neighboring states were able to more easily move about the annual Howl Halloween dance party due to several logistical changes.
This year no USU students were arrested at the Halloween dance party, however, 19 arrests were made, Capt. Steve Milne, assistant chief for the USU Police Department, said. He said this is the highest number of arrests he’s seen at the Howl, and most of them were alcohol-related.
“They appear to be all non-USU students,” Milne said. “We arrested students from U of U, UVU, Idaho State University and Weber State University.”
According to Zach Larsen, vice president of ASUSU Programing, a new line system through the Taggart Student Center, as well as the looped pathway from the TSC to the Fieldhouse and back, made it easier to navigate through the crowds.
“We didn’t have anyone waiting in line,” Larsen said. “People were able to get to where they wanted to go without too much congestion.”
Larsen said at last year’s Howl people waited in line for more than an hour, so this year they hired fire dancers to entertain students in line, but the line appeared to move quickly.
Larsen said the line going through the basement of the TSC and having well-trained volunteers, sped up the process dramatically compared to last year. He said the line never got longer than a few hundred feet.
Larsen said all 6,000 tickets for the event were sold out by 10:30 p.m., and none of the patrons had to wait more than 15 minutes in line. The number of people allowed into the Howl this year was reduced to help manage the number of people inside the event.
The crowd management strategy underwent logistical improvements this year, but USU Police made a record number of arrests. Milne said over the past five or six years almost all arrests at the Howl have been people visiting the valley and not USU students.
“I don’t know if it’s because USU students know that this is heavily monitored by law enforcement, and those who choose to drink may go elsewhere,” Milne said.
Milne said he thinks students from other schools may not be aware of how seriously USU Administration and Police take alcohol consumption.
“The students work hard to put on a fun event for people, and then it’s marred by these people who are not students that come up here,” Milne said.
Milne said there were no assaults reported to the police this year. He said last year there were several assaults, including arrests made for assaulting a police officer.
Milne said there were also a few medical calls at the dance, including one in which a student was moving in and out of consciousness and vomiting from alcohol consumption. He said ASUSU hired paramedics to assist police with medical calls this year.
“One of the things that ASUSU has done in the last several years, to try to increase the safety and work with the problems, is they pay to have Logan paramedics on site,” Milne said. “Years prior to that, if we had a problem we’d have to call and we’d have to be waiting five, six, seven minutes for them to respond.”
Milne said the other medical calls were for things such as students feeling dizzy or having their feet stepped on.
USU student Mandy Maughan said this was her first Howl, and she felt that it was crowded.
“I’m loving the Howl,” Maughan said. “I like all the options of things they have to do. I especially love the dance and trampolines. It is way crowded, but that’s good because that means they sold a ton of tickets.”
The Fieldhouse was the dance venue with DJ Marcus Wing and performances by Highpoint gymnasts on trampolines.
Director of Highpoint Gymnastics Thomas Theobald said performers did flips and snowboard tricks, where they jumped with a snowboard attached to their feet, along with a variety of other stunts.
“We jump all over the country for halftime shows and festivals,” Theobald said. “This is by far the biggest party we’ve ever done.”
Theobald said the crowd was filled with a high level of energy the entire night.
USU student Abbie Starkey also said this year’s Howl was crowded, but the loop from the TSC to the Fieldhouse facilitated fluid movement. She said having the main dance in the Fieldhouse instead of the TSC Ballroom kept the dance area from getting too crowded.
“I think moving the dance into the Fieldhouse was a really good idea,” Starkey said. “They had it in the ballroom last year, and it was really crowded.”
Starkey said event planners were better at keeping students from leaving early out of boredom or being overwhelmed by the crowd size. She said she saw a lot of people leave early last year.
“This one is worse than last year,” USU student Colton Keune said. “It’s just two big dances and a bunch of small things.”
Keune said he felt last year had more big events staggered throughout the night.
The other big events included live bands such as Cartel in the TSC Ballroom. There were also carnival games, dance performances, stilt walkers and live snakes.
Cory Drage of Voodoo Productions and Creature Encounters had a live snake for partiers to get pictures with. Drage walked around the event with a Dumeril’s boa constrictor around his neck.
“You can trust them just like any animal, if you’re educated and know what your doing,” Drage said to students who asked why he wasn’t being choked by the snake.
Drage said the snakes don’t mind the dance too much because they really don’t hear noise. He said they can still be overstimulated, however, if there is too much commotion.
– chris.w.lee@aggiemail.usu.edu