Well done everyone.
This year’s emerging welcome week festivities might be a bit “woke” for some, and may still be a bit too “foam party/wristband” for many tastes, but the range of activities now on offer to new students is now starting to really reflect the diversity of the student body and their need for “shallower starts” to student life.
The published programmes will confuse many – because for those working in the university sector that we might characterise as “young baby boomers” or “older Gen Xers”, the “golden age” of Freshers Weeks was largely about bands.
There was a time – as documented elsewhere on the site – when elected sabbatical ents officers would book all the big acts in the charts to play the first week or so of term, often with little regard for budgets, health and safety or venue capacity.
But as the 80s wore on, the music industry got more global and SU commercial operations professionalised, the ability to secure the big names in the hit parade started to dry up.
