Carnage UK ÔÇô the event notorious for its heavy boozing and even heavier partying ÔÇô filled the clubs of Cardiff last Sunday with hundreds of first year undergraduates participating in the infamous student experience.
This time, the fancy dress theme, ÔÇÿPimps and HoesÔÇÖ, meant nothing was left to the imagination as female students took to the streets in suspenders, knickers and killer heels. This produced the predictable shrieks of outrage from some national newspapers, with the Daily Mail going as far as describing some outfits as ÔÇ£the fancy dress code of a prostitute.ÔÇØ
ÔÇ£Some of the behaviour witnessed at Carnage was embarrassing,ÔÇØ comments first year student Elisabeth Allen. ÔÇ£People were lying in the streets covered in vomit and a boy even collapsed in one of the nightclubs.ÔÇØ
Of course, events like Carnage UK can encourage excessive binge drinking and anti-social behaviour; one reveller ÔÇô a shoeless, hysterical female ÔÇô had to be restrained by a police officer.
But the event, which has received harsh media criticism in the past, doesnÔÇÖt just target Cardiff ÔÇô it takes its antics on a tour of 44 university towns around the UK.
Many of the pictures posted across social networking sites by students following the event showed the evening in a different light, with the majority of people having harmless fun. The newspapers, of course, chose to depict only the worst excesses of the night.
The media and other critics are very swift to target the Welsh capital as being the heart of ÔÇÿBinge BritainÔÇÖ, but as another student stated: ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre only young once, and the pictures printed across newspapers are hardly incriminating ÔÇô no harm was done.ÔÇØ
This comment rang true with the authorities also; the South Wales police stated afterwards that despite the amount of ÔÇÿintoxicatedÔÇÖ teenagers that filled the streets of Cardiff that night, there were actually no arrests.
Most of CardiffÔÇÖs students will go on to get excellent degrees and the only hangover Carnage UK will have left will be a distant memory of a great night.
Vicky Chandler
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