Furness College’s well known 15 hour bar crawl took place on Saturday Week 5. The event, running from 11am on Saturday until 2am on Sunday saw students stumbling around the bars in Lancaster before ending the might in the Sugarhouse. The very length of the 15-hour bar crawl, in which cheap drinks deals are offered in many of the establishments has been suggested by some to encourage excessive drinking and anti-social behaviour.
Ryan Jardine, Furness Vice President of Socials and Events, described the event to SCAN as a “Furness tradition going back about 8 years in which Furnessians come together on a bar crawl around Lancaster, starting in Trevor and ending in Sugarhouse.” The bar crawl has been seen as a possible endorsement of excessive drinking as there is no ulterior purpose to the event other than as a social occasion. When asked whether their was a charity aspect to the event, Jardine replied, “whilst this year there is no specific charitable focus, I would like to think it is more about going out and enjoying the day with a group of friends than ‘just getting pissed’ … although I’m sure many would disagree.”
Regarding last years Easy Tiger campaign, Jardine further stated, “we did look at getting easy tiger involved but thought about it too late to get anything concrete organised. Next time around this would definitely be a focus as I am all for advocating responsible drinking.”
Many however will see this as a key issue surrounding the Furness event which has been insufficiently considered and acted upon by the JCR for Saturday’s bar crawl. However Jardine went to say that “we will be giving out easy tiger leaflets with each t-shirt as another reminder to take it easy during the day.”
William Hedley, Furness President replied similarly and was eager to state that student safety was a major consideration of the event and that excessive drinking was not being encouraged. “We will be reminding people to pace themselves throughout the day and drink plenty of water to try and keep people in a reasonable state until the later venues such as Elements and Sugarhouse.”
As drinking can be assumed as an integral part of the event, Hedley was also keen to mention that “many of the other social events we are putting on this term will be perfectly accessible to non-drinkers.”
