A ban on Halloween street parties in Carbondale reduced crowds, but police still could not completely contain those who assembled downtown.

Carbondale officials, with the approval of Southern Illinois University officials, cancelled the Halloween Fair Days ordinances that allowed public consumption of alcohol and closed off two downtown streets during the weekend before Halloween.

“We were generally pleased with the situation, the party was drastically reduced in size. By any statistical measure, the campaign was successful,” said SIU President John Guyon.

There were a total of 84 arrests for Friday and Saturday nights, 40 for public consumption of alcohol and 18 for under age drinking violations, Jeff Doherty, Carbondale’s assistant city manager said.

There were 195 arrests over the weekend before Halloween in 1988, 120 of which were for under age drinking, Doherty said.

Doherty said there were approximately 1,500 when a crowd formed in the streets Friday, while about 3,500 people assembled in the streets Saturday night.

Friday night in Carbondale was lifeless until close to 12:30 a.m., when a party near the downtown area known as “the strip” broke up and the people filled the street, along with people leaving bars in the area, said Lisa Miller, a reporter from SIU’s newspaper, The Daily Egyptian.

SIU junior Dom Magnoni said Saturday’s crowd was more organized. He said most of the people who filled the street were SIU students who acted in a “pretty relaxed” manner.

Doherty said eliminating the street parties would be a two to three year process.