Hoboken Will Add Police During Traditional 'LepreCon' Weekend

HOBOKEN, NJ — A website has popped up again this year promoting the controversial Hoboken "Leprecon" bar crawl for the first Saturday in March, but Hoboken Police Chief Ken Ferrante said Tuesday that he doesn't expect much of a commotion this year.

Still, to be safe, he's beefing up patrols.

"Our ABC [Alcoholic Beverage Control] unit has been staying on top of this," Ferrante said on Tuesday, when asked about a website advertising an "Official Hoboken LepreCon Crawl 2021" for this weekend from 10-4.

Right now, there are precautionary limits on gatherings in New Jersey, particularly inside a bar, where occupancy is limited to 35 percent and masks are required.

Ferrante said, "Buying of tickets for the event has been disabled for some time. On this link, if you try to go to the link for the VIP Pass, you cannot get into it. Because the first Saturday in March has been a traditional event day in Hoboken for close to 30 years, I have added an extra 36 officers to the day and night’s deployment."

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Ferrante said the extra deployment is drastically down from the 150-200 officers they usually have out on that day, and "there are no indications of a large scale event needing that many officers."

Last year's crawl was more subdued than in past years, officials had noted last year. But six people were arrested.

That event took place a little over a week before the coronavirus shutdowns began. See the photos here.

The privately organized event began around 2012, after the traditional Hoboken St. Patrick's Parade Committee refused to move their traditional parade to a weekday night, ignoring requests from Mayor Dawn Zimmer. Zimmer was tired of the rowdy house parties and celebrations that were held privately on the same day as the parade each year.

With the parade canceled, independent promoters began scheduling their own "LepreCon" bar crawls on the first Saturday of March each year, when the parade traditionally ran. (Hoboken's St. Patrick's Parade was held early so it wouldn't have to compete with other cities' parades for bands).

Read more about the history here.

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