Madison Halloween and Fake YouTube Videos

The State Street Halloween Party, renamed Freakfest in 2006, drew crowds of up to 120,000 from several states in 2001 to 2005, with up to 566 arrests.¹ Injuries during the event included anonymous razor cutting of attendees, who only later realized they needed attention.

However, some of the reputation has come from false videos claiming to show Halloween on State Street, like this one:

Someone named "voglbop" posted this to YouTube on August 26, 2014. He titled it "Madison Wisconsin Halloween riot footage", and noted that it was

"Footage of the first Halloween riot at Madison, Wisconsin. At 0:13 Madison art cow statue can be seen. At 0:22 Mendota Police Officer Mike Johnson takes a brick to the head. At 2:20 the University of Minnesota’s students are spotted waving their school's color flag."

No year is mentioned. Some of the comments describe the video:

"God I remember this. that was really scary" Travis Wells, 1 year ago

"Did I see rioters dragging riot police to the side? If thats true I guess some rioters are okay, even if they are wielding baseball bats and a mask." Banement, 2 years ago

"These people throwing these stones must have received their PhDs in rock throwing. They pushed the police back." Andre Murphy, 2 years ago

"This is crazy just witnessed a murder" Jude Mc, 2 years ago

The video has had 3,805 views. There's more than one problem with all this. The video title still shows familiar State Street businesses, but the actual video is very different. This is not Madison, Wisconsin, in spite of a painted cow:

1. There is no Mendota Police Department.
2. The flag is Ukraine's blue over yellow, not Minnesota's maroon and gold.
3. The torch icon in the lower left corner of the video is from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Georgia (the country, not the State).
   

Meanwhile, back in Madison, the City took control of the Halloween event in 2006 by limiting access to State Street, charging admission, and closing the street at midnight. In 2015 37,000 attended and there were 9 arrests.¹

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References
¹"State Street Halloween Party," Wikipedia, retrieved 11/17/17