Many years ago they cracked down on the Halloween parties.  They decided to roll with it, shut down a bunch of streets, book bands, etc and make in an organized “Freakfest” event .  Security was very tight, damn near strip searched to get in.  Tons of cops, even the police horses patrolling ready to start thumping skulls and launching tear gas.  

Crowds were pretty thick at first.  It was impossible to get drunk there.  30+ min wait just to get in a bar and another 30 minutes to order a drink.  

Now I’m too old for this stuff and haven't kept up on it.

They tried but it didn’t really take. My senior year there (2012) the university and the city tried really hard to shut it down. There was a video that the dean put out that year repeating “don’t go, don’t go” that immediately prompted more people to go. MPD tried enforcing open container laws, underage drinking, and public intoxication to the letter and had people in riot cuffs sitting in groups waiting to get on a school bus to go to the police station. People I know got massive fines for the parties they were throwing.

It almost seems like it’s “too big to fail” at this point to effectively stop and the students have turned it into a self-fulfilling prophecy of chaos.