17 Sep. 2023
By Oliva Watts and Johanne Hanghøj Jørgensen
Lamin stands shirtless in front of a hyped crowed who sings about good drinks, good days, and good times with him. Lamin is one of several artist Roskilde university (RUC) has invited for this years’ one-day festival. Bar tents, food trucks portable toilets and a small stage sets the framework. Around 8000 students are gathered at their parking lot to celebrate the beginning of a new schoolyear.
The one-day festival began at 5 pm and ends at 3 am. It is crammed with happy students – several of them who have had more than one beer, which is not a rarity among young Danes. They are famous for their drinking habits. A survey from The Danish health department shows that young Danes are raking highest in Europe, when it comes to binge-drinking.
“Everybody is pretty drunk. Because of the drunkness I can learn new things about them. We talk in a different way. The talks are more interesting drunk then sober,” says 21-year-old Svend Flagrup. He is a first semester student and is at the festival with his fellow students, who started in the beginning of September. Even though he finds it a necessity for himself to be drunk when coming to an event like this, he still thinks there are room for the people, who want to be sober. “I don’t feel like there is a pressure to drink.”
Former student at RUC Jennifer Holm Lindahl tells, that she has been drinking at parties since the 8th grade. “It gives me a more relaxed feeling at social event.”
But she respects and supports persons, who decides not to drink. “I was a tutor when I was a student. We tried to emphasize, that the new students didn’t have to drink to be a part of the group.”
It’s close to 2 am, when DJ Fauxstick puts on the last song, with a bass so deep, you can almost fell the hair on your arms vibrating. When it end many of the students a collective does walk towards the train, where the sleeping heads and sound of someone vomiting in the bathroom tells another story of the amount and conserveness of alcohol.
