Hordes of shambling undead poured through the doors Saturday night at Town Center, prompting one City Council member raising the alarm last week that the annual Spooktacular is in danger of being overrun.
Ward 3 Council member Ben Green asked city staff if Town Center had been in violation of occupancy restrictions as thousands packed into the facility for the city-sponsored Halloween celebration.
Justin Battles, city parks and recreation director, said there are occupancy limits but that number can get a little “fuzzy” if the crowd is moving.
“It is a concern we have that we will look at in the future,” he said.
Prior to Saturday night, the event had peaked at about 3,100 visitors. On Saturday night, Battles said that number exceeded 5,000, surprising the staff putting on the event.
“It is a very tough event,” he said. “And then when you grow by 2,000, it is pretty amazing. It is a good problem to have, but we will have obstacles in the future that we will have to overcome to continue the event to be as successful as it is.”
Fire Chief Carl Hickman said there are limits to every building, but the only way to enforce it is to station personnel at the doors and use counters to keep track. That did not happen Saturday night.
“We were not asked to do that,” he said. “We didn't think about doing that.”
Green called for the parks staff and the fire chief to get together before the next City Council meeting and come up with a plan on how they would correct the overcrowding problem in the future.
“We are getting ready for the chocolate festival (Feb. 11) and last year, you couldn't crawl in it because they had it in the evening,” Green said. “Somebody is going to get hurt, and there is parking all over the place. There were people who wanted to leave and couldn't get home.”
City Manager Mike Rutledge said the high turnout was unexpected, and the city was not prepared for it.
“That is a poor excuse Mike,” Green told him. “That happened last year. It happens at every event we have. We have just outgrown the facility … We should be on top of that.”
Battles said his staff is already brainstorming ideas for future events in an effort to ease the pressure and help Spooktacular flourish without shrieks of horror from overcrowding.