Controversial bar crawl Carnage is set to return to Lincoln following its debut in the city back in April.
Carnage caused outrage amongst local councillors when it organised its first event in Lincoln, with the City Council passing a motion against it.
The date of this year’s bar crawl is due to be announced shortly, and could potentially cause another backlash from city councillors.
April’s event was hailed as a success by Carnage UK, the organisers, after the night passed without major incident. Around 1,200 people attended, with tickets selling out in just 90 minutes.
The entertainment firm, owned by Varsity Leisure Group (VLG), provided 50 stewards, on top of a medical care service from Medical Response Services, a company registered with the British Ambulance Association. They say that they will “have in place the same stringent measures to ensure that the forthcoming event continues to be a success and that the evening continues to be void of problems.”
Further still, the bars and clubs will offer free soft drinks and, where possible, discounted food.
Carnage UK say that following the “phenomenal interest” in the previous Carnage event in Lincoln, and a “very high number of requests to fix another date” they decided to make plans to return to the city.
The company says their “events are carefully planned, organized, and managed. They are for undergraduates only with a strictly limited number of tickets sold in advance. VLG [Varsity Leisure Group] has been in communication with the authorities. VLG wants the students to be safe and for the City of Lincoln to have the benefit of a boost to its late-night economy, at a time of recession, without any trouble.”
The event was aimed at “[giving] students the opportunity to have a fun night out with other students from differing ethnic and social backgrounds,” according to Carnage UK.
Whilst speaking to The Linc on our Week In Review podcast, Lincoln City Councillor Karen Lee said: “I think Carnage was a dreadful thing and I would hate to see it happen again.”
She also said that “all Carnage was about was people who own pubs making money. The students, who would have drunk far too much and probably been ill as a result of that, nobody thought about them. It wasn’t about ‘let’s give them a good time’, it was actually about people who’ve got pubs making money… I absolutely support anyone who was against that. It simply wasn’t necessary and it wasn’t a good idea. I think we’ve got enough going on without that.”
This is quite an interesting article. In general I am opposed to Carnage as it promotes irresponsible drinking, however I do appreciate the efforts made to offer soft drinks/food etc. I also agree with Cllr Lee in that, it’s not about social integration; 1200 students cannot fit in any bar in Lincoln together, they had to be split up with small groups going to each bar, thus students essentially just paid £8 for a t-shirt and to go to any bar which was free on a normal night, and to go to a nightclub that generally offers extremely cheap entry anyway.
What I find most interesting is this phrase:
So only undergraduate students can have fun? What about postgraduate students, they’re not the stereotypical dull boring researcher, many of our postgraduates are 21/22 year olds with just as much life in them as any other student, regardless of age.
(written in personal, not professional capacity)