#13 Halloween on Franklin Street

When I was a freshman in 2007, Halloween on Franklin Street seemed like the ultimate college party. Every year more than 80,000 celebrators would flood Chapel Hill’s most popular road and transform it into a runway for their craziest costumes.

Four years later, only 27,000 revelers braved the cold to celebrate Halloween on Franklin. The town of Chapel Hill has put efforts into place to keep the crowds down and clear the streets early to keep residents safe… more like crush the hopes and dreams of my 17-year-old self.

Despite the toned down celebration, I had to get to Franklin for Halloween before I graduated so I roadtripped down to Chapel Hill on Monday with high hopes and a car full of costumed friends.

We arrived pretty early and the town was still shutting down the streets. Luckily, we had a friend’s place to park at so we were able to avoid the outrageous $20 parking fees.

We waited for the streets to fill at a small pizza place, the Artisan Pizza Kitchen, with gross pizza, but great beer specials. One minute, I leaned down to take a bite and there were only a couple hundred people outside, the next I sit up to see thousands. It happened that fast.

Franklin Street is one of those weird events that doesn’t have a pre-determined start time, people just seem to all show up at once as though they had an internal alarm clock telling them the time.

The whole experience was vaguely reminiscent of a middle school dance but one full of paparazzi instead of 12-year-olds. Everyone was doing laps up and down the street so they could see and be seen while cameras flashed everywhere you looked.

I’ve never seen costumes so creative and elaborate. Charlotte definitely needs to step its costume game up. My favorites were a family of Angry Birds, a man wearing nothing but a grass loincloth, Sexy Sax Men who had a saxophone battle playing ‘Careless Whisper’ and a group dressed as Rice Krispies’ animated spokespeople Snap, Crackle and Pop.

If you’re over 21, I recommend paying the cover to go to Top of the Hill. It’s a restaurant and brewery with a rooftop section that allows you the best view of the Franklin Street masses. The bird’s eye view is also one of the best ways to take in all of the crazy costumes.

I don’t see how 80,000 people used to cram onto Franklin, it was crazy and crowded with just 27,000. I’ve never seen anything like it and there isn’t anything comparable here in Charlotte. It wasn’t quite what I expected but I’m glad I went.

Next week, find out exactly how embarrassing streaking through campus is when I tell you about number 18 on the list.

I’d like to give a special thank you to Erin Coats for letting us park at her house, and to Emily Kupsky and Zach Buchholz for dressing up and going on the Halloween adventure with me.