MADISON, Wis. — With it being Homecoming weekend and Halloween weekend it is shaping up to be a busy time for Wisconsin’s capitol city.
Every year during Alumni weekend, the Alumni Foundation holds its annual "Fill the Hill" which is a fundraising event for the university.
Betsy Popelka-Massnick, director of annual giving, said on Friday afternoon there were over 2,000 donations through Fill the Hill.
“There are a lot of different homecoming events. We have the parade and the block party after that, but today, we also have a bunch of pink flamingo ducks in the fountain,” said Popelka-Massnick.
Popelka-Massnick said Fill the Hill is inspired by a prank from 1979.
“A student group called the Pail and Shovel Party planted 1,008 pink flamingos here on Bascom Hill, so we brought the tradition back and joined it with giving,” said Popelka-Massnick.
Marc Lovicott, executive director of communications with the campus police, said homecoming weekend is always a busy one, especially during Halloween.
“We are used to this kind of stuff, we are prepared, it is pretty much business as usual for us, all we are asking folks is to be mindful of the incredible amount of people that will be downtown on Saturday,” said Lovicott.
Lovicott said on busy weekends like this campus police often partner with Madison Police and other first responders in the area.
“We used to see these huge massive crowds on State Street. We don’t see a ton of that anymore,” said Lovicott. “ State Street will be busy but back in the heyday of Halloween where it was wall to wall people, I don’t think we will see that.”