OLD TOWN – Billed as the biggest party this community has seen in several years, a Halloween bash hosted by tenants of at least two Main Street apartment buildings took 17 police officers from four area law enforcement agencies nearly two hours to break up.

Old Town police Sgt. Mike Hashey estimated that as many as 600 people attended, though he acknowledged Monday that the count was “conservative.”

The trouble began about 11 p.m., when police began fielding “tons and tons” of complaints about noise, partygoers parking on the lawns of nearby homeowners and items being thrown at passing motorists, to name a few, Hashey said.

Initially, five Old Town officers, three from Orono, one officer from the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department and two state police officers were dispatched, Orono police Sgt. Scott Scripture said. Later, those officers were joined by one each from Old Town and Penobscot County and four more state troopers.

When officers arrived, they found about 100 revelers out in front of the buildings and at least 500 more inside three Main Street apartment buildings. Most of the partygoers were at 482 and 488 Main St., which Scripture said are occupied by college students.

Scripture said the occupants of 482 Main St. were less than cooperative, telling police that guests were leaving when officers could see they weren’t.

Police, patient but persistent, made only one arrest at the monster bash, according to Scripture. Orono police Officer Derek Dinsmore took Nathan F. Allen, 22, of Milford to Penobscot County Jail on a charge of failure to disperse after Dinsmore refused five or six requests to leave.