Issue 03 | March 11, 2013 | critic.co.nz

NEWS
More details on Hyde St emerge
By Sam McChesney
OUSA has provided more details on the “somewhere between $2 and $5,” with the proceeds
going towards health and safety costs.
format of this year’s Hyde Street party,
with numbers likely to be capped at 3500 First-years can attend if they live on Hyde Street
and ticket allocations given to residents. The or are given an allocated ticket, but OUSA noted
decisions come after a public meeting on Monday that the event “has traditionally been for thirdyears
and above, and that’s what we want to go
and a stakeholders’ meeting on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Otago Daily Times’s coverage of back to.” So fuck off, freshers.
the event remains as hilarious as ever.
In order to prevent scalping and to minimise the
According to an OUSA spokesman, “the tenants ability of non-Otago students to hijack the event,
are really keen to limit the numbers” from the ticket-holders will receive wristbands with their
estimated 5000 who showed up last year. Such name and emergency contact details. This will
a turnout created a severe safety risk as emergency
services were unable to reach students and for emergency services to deal with injured
make it easier for organisers to spot gatecrashers
stuck in the middle of the crowd. OUSA acknowledged
that a tradeoff was needed to reach the
or comatose partygoers. University of Otago
figure of 3500. “For us the numbers thing was
the hardest, because the emergency services
were saying 2000-2500, residents and students
just want a mean party, so we kind of need to
meet in the middle.” Critic speculates that the
DCC, which yearns to kill the event deader than
Hugo Chavez, would be thrilled to learn that
safety concerns are being “met in the middle.”
“The attempts by
event organisers to
limit attendance to
Otago students have
been welcomed.”
Vice-Chancellor Harlene Hayne told Critic last
week that “carnage” from last year’s party had
spread almost to the botanical gardens, and that
passed-out students “had no ID on them, so we
had no way of knowing who they were or where
they belonged.”
The attempts by event organisers to limit attendance
to Otago students have been welcomed.
Hayne noted that many non-students seem to
attend for the sole purpose of “wreaking havoc,”
Hyde Street tenants are to receive a ticket allocation,
estimated to be between 10 and 15 per
tenant, to share with their friends. Residents of
adjacent streets may also receive invitations to
the event, although nothing has yet been finalised.
The remainder of the tickets will be sold to
Otago students in their second year or above for
A typical Otago student is arrested and led away by police
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