Hyde Street

Yesterday was one of the biggest parties of the year at Otago University, the annual Hyde Street Keg Party. If you have every been to a college keg party, you will be aware of the drunken revelry that occurs at such events, but even the most wild parties in the states might now be enough to prepare you for this holy grail of alcohol induced, university student celebrations.

The festivities started at about 5 in the morning (unless you were up all night drinking the night before). Williams College students, picture day-drinking, homecoming style times a thousand. An estimated 10,000 people made there way to Hyde Street yesterday, dressed in costumes comparable to those seen on Halloween. Each house on the street has a different theme, such as:

a Hyde Street - On the Hyde Seas
5 Hyde Street - Geeks
6 Hyde Street - Zombie apocolypse

17 Hyde Street - Construction Site
20 Hyde Street - Smurfs24 Hyde Street - Hippies on hyde

27 Hyde Street - Mile Hyde Club
33 Hyde Street - Wild wild west

The Street fills with people, live music, free food, and of course, alcohol. This year, a strict ban was placed on glass, to help keep the crowd safe and make clean up easier. This video, gives an idea of how the party began, and here are a few photos pulled off of facebook (look how many people are packed onto the street!)

It was a crazy day, the party peaked around midday and by 3pm they began shutting the street down after a roof collapsed. With out a doubt, this was the wildest even I have every experienced, so much fun, especially because Gabe came down from Christchurch for the weekend! The student population in the city probably doubled for this party and we had seven people sleeping on the floor of our flat Friday night. Here is a picture of us with our kiwi host's brother and his friend, who also came down for the party and had a great time dressing as Mexicans and taking photos on my laptop.

Too crazy for words. My flatmate Eliza described it as "utter pandemonium" and I have to agree. But, we all had a good time (and - for you, mom - we stayed safe); somethings like this, you just have to see to believe.