Collegiate drink fest for fraternization

Trink, trink, Brüderlein, trink! Cheers, and chug away! That, in the end, is what a cantus entails: guided by common song-singing during a collegiate drink fest get to know fellow students better.

The singing and drink fest took place in the M halls on Tuesday night. Crowds of students gathered even an hour before to queue up and get in, while a handful of students had discovered the shortcut via the bridge to the T-building. Where there are normally exams held, especially for tonight the hall was decorated with party lights, a stage and dozens of table benches. Around 8:30 pm the doors closed and no one was allowed in or out any more…

Dry on the stage

“Eurekaweek crew, we’re standing dry on the stage here! Can anyone solve this?” the lead singer shouted to the audience. The beer is being distributed and the music starts. The night is being opened in Dutch fashion and the Wilhelmus (Dutch national anthem) fills the hall. Now and then, the leaflet is checked for the lyrics, but the atmosphere was got going.

‘More beer for us’

Upcoming students Cultural Sciences Wouter, Romy, Luc and Annelou are among few with a small group at a table. There are only five students of their study who participate in the Eurekaweek, says Romy. ‘That leaves more beer for us,’ laughs Luc. And indeed, the beer is flowing profusely and quickly the group starts to move to the music. Wouter was already familiar with the cantus of his previous study association, but tonight was one of the better ones he’d experienced. “Generally speaking the rules are very strict, but here they fortunately don’t really stick to them.”

‘Kind of funny’

During the Dutch songs, the international students are gazing around a bit, but as soon as there’s an English song like ‘I will survive’ or ‘Rolling on the river’ being sung by the band, everybody loses it. The entire hall starts to dance and here and there the benches fall over. Annelou, contrary to her expectations, finds it really nice and enjoyable. “We were only with very few, but ultimately it was kind of funny.” Fatigue they have never heard of, so they are in busy conference whether or not to pull a late one at SSR of Laurentius.

After closing, the cantus theme was just carried on by the student associations. Buses, accompanied by welcoming committees, are waiting outside to take the jubilant students to the association parties. Tonight, the general Eurekaweek theme seems to be: singing, drinking and partying as the way to fraternize. CW