Unofficial St. Patrick's Day. My 1st Love

This past weekend I traveled down to my old stomping grounds of Champign-Urbana, or as I prefer to call it, "Urbanpaign". The reason for my triumphant return was to celebrate Unofficial St. Patrick's day for my 6th time.

For those unfamiliar with the holiday, it was created in the late 90's bar a local bar owner in an attempt to recoup lost revenue because the real St. Patrick's day was always during U of I's spring break. So he made up the holiday to take place a week before. Students stepped back, thought for a moment, and have turned the school into a giant trashcan every year since.

In recent years though, the school has taken numerous actions to attempt to curb the day which has grown beyond their control and tolerance. Some of these ordinances include,

All bars will be 21 and over instead of 19 and over
No liqour shots or pitchers
All bottles must be plastic, no glass
Any purchase of multiple kegs will require a permit

According to the local papers of Champaign, local bar and store owners thought students were much more well behaved than in years past. Additionally, lines at the bars were not as long as usual.

While the city and the school are calling the weekend a success, I remain uneasy. Unofficial is more popular than ever, it just isn't as public.

"I think it's much busier this year," said Champaign Police Lt. Brad Yohnka

By enacting several emergency sanctions to control the holiday, Illinois is dramatically increasing the safety risks of the day. Most people are now going to apartment parties and fraternity parties which are largely uncontrolled. Bars will stop serving when a patron has had too much to drink. At an apartment party, the patron fills their own cup, and might not stop until they have had far too much.

According to the Champaign News-Gazette,

Police were also called out at 6:30 p.m. to the 800 block of South Fourth Street, where a man in his 20s fell three stories from an apartment balcony. He was hospitalized with unknown injuries and an investigation is ongoing, Yohnka said.

The man was attempting to climb from a third-floor balcony to a fourth-floor balcony when he fell, according to neighbors at a house next door. They were preparing to play a drinking game involving beer and Ping-Pong balls.