Cambridge students run wild on Caesarian Sunday

Stripping, vomiting, and drinking themselves unconscious: Cambridge students' annual summer party

•Undergraduates seen urinating in the flower beds •Revellers vomited just metres away from where young children played •Blood shed between rival college drinking societies •Girls held upside down as alcohol poured into their mouths

Cambridge University students taking part in Caesarian Sunday on Jesus Green in Cambridge 

9:01AM BST 07 May 2012

Families were disgusted to see more than 2000 drunken Cambridge University students stripping off, vomiting and drinking themselves unconscious at a riotous summer term party in a public park.

Mothers and fathers looked on in horror as the students downed excessive amounts of alcohol, then threw up just metres away from where their young children were playing.

Other undergraduates were seen urinating in the flower beds, while one was even taken to hospital by ambulance after he drank himself unconscious at the park in Cambridge's city centre yesterday (Sun) afternoon.

^{Cambridge University students taking part in Caesarian Sunday on Jesus Green in Cambridge}

Around 2000 students attended the annual party, known as Caesarian Sunday, which historically takes place on Jesus Green in Cambridge on the first bank holiday of the summer term.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing mum-of-two Tracy Burton
Many of them were members of the college drinking societies turned up wearing their university blazers and pushing trolley loads of booze.
They then spent the afternoon taking part in shocking and bizarre initiation ceremonies.

Girls were seen drinking port through condoms, while others were held upside down as alcohol was poured in their mouths.
Some were seen acting out sexual positions, while male students chanted and ran around with their trousers round their ankles.
Shocked onlookers later witnessed an organised fight between the Caesarians, Jesus' inter-year drinking society and the Girton Green Giants, in which blood was shed as students chanted and cheered.
An ambulance was called just before 3pm after a student in his 20's collapsed from drinking too much.
He was worked on for an hour by paramedics before being taken to nearby Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.
Police officers were also called to the park to assist with the incident.
Just metres away a crowd of 200 people had gathered to hear a brass band play, but their afternoon's entertainment was disrupted by the drunken students.
"I couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was disgusting behaviour by students who are meant to be the cream of the crop," said mum-of-two Tracy Burton, 31, from Cambridge.
"We had gone for a walk in the park with our children and there were lots of other families around and I'm furious they were exposed to their partying.
"Lots of the students were semi-naked, others were shouting, swearing and singing loudly.
"They were totally out of control and no one seemed to be stopping them.
"It totally ruined our afternoon and my four-year-old now says he doesn't want to go back to the park."
Cambridge University students take part in Caesarian Sunday every year to mark the start of the summer term.
Legend has it that a member of the Girton Green Giants once stole a bottle of Pimms from a member of the Jesus college Caesarians.
The bottle was subsequently thrown at the group of Caesarians in a challenge to a fight.
Now every year the president of Girton's drinking society downs a bottle of Pimms and invites the Jesus drinking society to fight.
The initiations are really shocking and its worse as it's in a public place ANON
This year thousands of students shouted and cheered at around 3pm as more than 20 male students with "war paint" on their faces viciously fought on the Green.
One team, wearing make-shift togas, marched behind a pig's head on a stake as they headed to battle.
Many then continued to drink all afternoon, before jumping in the nearby River Cam in their underwear or staggering to the nearby night clubs.
A lot of the students, both male and female, could barely stand by the end of the afternoon.
One girl was supported by her friends as she hobbled home, while another had to be carried by a male friend as other students looked on giggling.
"This is one of the biggest events in the calendar for the drinking societies and some graduates even come back just for the occasion," said one student, who did not want to be named.
"Many of them will start drinking at lunchtime and just carry on. A lot of them have been in the pubs for most of the day.
"The initiations are really shocking and its worse as it's in a public place, but most students are so drunk they don't realise or care.
"Most of them think they deserve to party hard as they work hard during the term.
"Exams are coming up and this is their way to let off a bit of steam before weeks of revision."
Caesarian Sunday is seen as the birth of the drinking parties for the summer term, which ends with the notorious after-exams party, Suicide Sunday, in June.
Three years ago the Suicide Sunday garden party, organised by the Wyverns, an all-male Magdalene College drinking society, had to be held in a new location for the first time in 80 years after officials banned students from holding the event on university land.
The controversial decision was made after a 23-year-old student was arrested the previous year during the infamous jelly wrestling contest for punching a spectator.
The Wyverns drinking society has a reputation for its hard partying and excessive drinking.
Its initiation ceremony involves eating a 15-course meal with delicacies such as a pig's snout with wasabi sauce and a pint of water with a goldfish swimming inside.
The Caesarians society has a tradition whereby any initiated member can point at an invited male, or "Legionary" as they call it, keeping with the Roman theme, and he must then down his drink.
There is no limit to the number of times this can be done to any one individual, and it has been reported that many don't make it much past the end of the meal.
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