Homecoming’s coming up fast and with our track record, this may be your last chance to host a breakfast kegger of your own. Since the main event (the football game) starts at 1 pm, it’s basic logic that the day drinking will begin early.
If you plan to host a pre-game party, you need to know that drinking in the morning makes people dangerously hangry and you need to be prepared.
Sure you’ve got tricolour everything and you camped outside the ARC (Athletics and Recreation Centre) overnight to get your student-side football game tickets, but do you really know what it takes to make a Homecoming breakfast kegger a success?
Give your guests a delicious and nutritious start to HOCO by following a few simple rules.
Do: Have Enough Beer
Photo by Eliza Mitnick
No one hates a party more than the one that over-advertises and ends up with dry kegs before noon. If you’re worried about funding, make sure to collect fees from your Engineering frosh in advance or team up with an alumni year willing to compensate you for the use of your backyard.
To play it safe, buy more beer than you think you’ll need. Chances are more people will come than you expect and there won’t be any leftover.
Don’t: Use Gentian on Anything but People
Photo by Meg Caldwell
This should go without saying, but gentian is not edible and should not be used to make your beer or pancakes (or any other foods) purple — that’s what food colouring is for. You may think this is common sense, but I know a group of people who had to throw out 4 big bowls of purple pancake mix coloured with gentian. Their feedback: “It tastes like cancer, but it looks pretty.”
For more on gentian violet and its history at Queen’s, visit the Queen’s Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science wiki page.
Do: Load Up on Carbs
Photo by Meg Caldwell
The best pre-game Homecoming parties are the ones that provide a starchy, carb-heavy breakfast of purple pancakes. Don’t have enough plates? Syrup is expensive? No worries. Your drunk friends are more than willing to eat plain pancakes with their hands.
Making sure everyone’s had something to eat will also help to keep their energy up for a full day of Homecoming fun.
Don’t: Get Busted
Photo courtesy of Robert Kuykendall on Flickr
If you attempt to host your party outside the student ghetto, you’re going to have a bad time. While it’s tempting to have the person who lives furthest West be the host, the risk of having the police called on you increases greatly anywhere West of Victoria St.
None of us want to become a post-Homecoming statistic on the Mayor’s twitter feed or pay a hefty fine, so let’s keep it contained.
Don’t: Miss the Game
Photo by Meg Caldwell
With all of the excitement, drinking, and food, it’s easy to lose track of time and forget to move everyone out in time for the football game. The easiest way to spread the message that it’s time to go is just to shut off the music. People tend to understand that signal and will start to clear out on their own.
We need to fill those stands, so get all your happy, full, and tipsy friends to Richardson Stadium to watch Queen’s beat Wilfred Laurier University.
Go Gaels!