Students gather on Pearl Street for the 2022 “Mall Crawl.” Oct. 30, 2022. (Jackson Champagne/CU Independent)
After a tumultuous return to form for Boulder’s infamous “Mall Crawl” in 2021, tensions were high between students and law enforcement this year.
The “Mall Crawl” is a longstanding tradition among Boulder residents. It began in the early 1980s with spontaneous Halloween celebrations on Pearl Street Mall, with crowds growing larger and more unruly each year. Finally, city officials and police shut it down after Halloween 1989 when 40,000 attendees caused property damage. The city banned the event in 1991.
In 2021, Boulder residents attempted to reinstate the event, largely as a response to promotional social media posts, including one on the Barstool Buffs Instagram account. The gathering included about 1,000 people, many of whom the police believed to be college students, according to Boulder Police Department Deputy Chief Stephen Redfearn. This large crowd of people began acting disorderly and disrupting businesses, leading to reports of both injuries and property damage.
CU Independent reporter Jackson Champagne took to Pearl Street on Oct. 30 to understand how different this event would be from its 2021 counterpart.
Watch the full story here:
Jessi Sachs contributed to this story.
Contact CU Independent Staff Reporter Jackson Champagne at jackson.champagne@colorado.edu.
