This year the Waterloo Warriors are coming to Kingston to take on the Golden Gaels in the Homecoming game, but Waterloo is offering up some competition in more places than the football field. While Queen’s students amass on Aberdeen Street for their infamous Homecoming street party, students at the University of Waterloo will be gathering under glorified beer tents—or Festhallen—at the Bavarian celebration of Oktoberfest. But when the two go head to head, which party will win out overall?
Homecoming
Queen’s Homecoming is a weekend packed with activities for thousands of alumni and current students to come out and enjoy. Not only does the event feature alumni reunions, a “Great Debate” and a football game complete with kilt-clad Queen’s Bands, the Saturday has culminated, for the past few years, with a giant street party.
Homecoming 2006 saw about 8,000 people on Aberdeen Street. The party-goers were joined by 400 red-hat volunteers who handed out plastic cups in exchange for glass bottles and distributed 2,400 water bottles and popcorn, making the night safer than the previous year, whose debauchery made national news.
Aberdeen Street resident Kate Pettersen, ArtSci ’09, said the first time she ever visited Queen’s was to come to Homecoming.
“It’s a tradition and other schools have heard how fun it is,” she said.
Pettersen said Homecoming brings people out to watch a University football game who would otherwise never go and it provides a great way for students to meet new people.
She said Aberdeen also makes a great central location for the party.
“The Queen’s Ghetto is so close knit … . It’s one spot where everyone goes.”
Another Aberdeen Street resident Joshua Counsil, Sci ’09, called the event “the greatest street party I’ve ever been to.”
Counsil said the party has continued to get larger as people hear about it and want to be part of it.
“It just escalated from word of mouth … and all the media hype,” he said.
Counsil said the party is an event where you will see everyone you know.
“It’s just like the bars—you know everyone is going to be there.”
But not everyone shares the same view of the Aberdeen Street party. In 2005, drunken revellers flipped a car and set it on fire. The night of Homecoming 2006, 58 people were arrested and 237 tickets were handed out.
AMS Commissioner of Municipal Affairs, Kaitlyn Young said it’s hard to know now how this year’s street party will turn out, but they have put in safety measures similar to those used last year.
“There’s no reason it shouldn’t be a similar outcome to last year,” she said.
AMS President Kingsley Chak said Homecoming is made great by the continued engagement of alumni.
“We always have a really strong alumni support,” Chak said. “It’s about seeing old friends and how the University has evolved.”
Chak said Queen’s Homecoming will likely be a better celebration than most because of the Queen’s spirit.
“People are proud to be there because they’re graduates of Queen’s.”
Oktoberfest
While Queen’s students and alumni are out on the streets celebrating Homecoming 2007, 50,000 students from colleges and universities in the Kitchener-Waterloo twin cities are enjoying a massive celebration of their own, drinking beer in the German Festhallen of Oktoberfest.
Kitchener-Waterloo’s Oktoberfest is a nine-day German celebration that officially opened with the “tapping of the keg” last Friday, Oct. 5.
Larry Blundell, executive director of Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest, said the festival occurs at the time of year when everyone is looking to celebrate both Thanksgiving and the twin cities’ German background.
“It’s a place to come and have the experience of a festival with lots of activities,” Blundell said.
Blundell said Oktoberfest started as a small celebration 39 years ago and has continued to grow ever since.
“We continue to develop entertainment and events throughout the nine days,” he said.
One of the major attractions throughout the nine days are the 15 Festhallen—licensed establishments run by German clubs and service clubs throughout the city which provide guests with beer and food.
“Each one of the clubs has its own unique atmosphere,” Blundell said.
He said the biggest spectacle of the week is likely the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
“It’s probably the most visible,” Blundell said. The parade features about 150,000 people on the parade route.
“It’s shown nationally on CTV… and it’s a very popular event for families.”
Blundell said, families are a big part of Oktoberfest but organizers also try to attract a younger demographic, catering some events specifically to the university crowd.
“We try to do something for everyone,” he said.
Rocktoberfest, for example, is a concert that headlines an up and coming rock group. This year’s featured band is Mobile, but it won’t be your typical rock concert. With a little Bavarian twist, Mobile will be joined by polka music artist Walter Ostanek.
Though Oktoberfest also has a strong police presence, Blundell said they have very few issues with drinking. Organizers supply free pop to designated drivers and free transit downtown for drinkers to prevent drinking and driving.
“We really have as safe a festival as we possibly can,” he said.
The Verdict
So who’s going to win in this party challenge?
“Our measure of success is the number of people that come out and the number of dollars that go back into the community,” Blundell said.
If we measured by those standards Oktoberfest would take the cake, but Homecoming’s uniqueness and high-spirited guests represent what students at Queen’s think partying is all about.
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