Home to one of North America’s oldest breweries, a long history of rum running, and a tourism industry devoted to liquor sales, drinking is firmly ingrained in the Halifax spirit. No matter where on the peninsula, you’ll find yourself within walking distance of up to 10 different breweries. Halifax is also home to a number of party schools – universities where the nightlife is more of a selling point than any state-of-the-art facilities. Dalhousie has three sororities and three frats; SMUites party hard at Dal — but, for some reason, when people talk about Halifax party culture, King’s is almost always entirely left out of the conversation.
Located 1,544 km west of King’s, Queen’s University is widely regarded as one of Canada’s top party schools. I was lucky enough to have the chance to speak to a student from Queen’s in conversation with one of my peers here at King’s to find out if, maybe, we’re not so different after all.
“Why do you think Queen’s has a reputation for being a party school?”
“Most of the irrelevant holidays are made into a celebration at Queen’s. We’ve got a Labour Day party, Valentines Day, “Foco” which is made up specifically to drink. Because they don’t want people visiting to see it in a negative way. Any excuse to party we party — even the city of Kingston knows that. The first six weeks of school the lake is closed off so people don’t stumble into the lake. It’s a ghost that follows us.”
“What is a Queen’s party that everyone should experience once?”
“Everyone should go to Foco, because it is a pillar of Queen culture…actually scratch that — a pillar of Canadian culture. Did you know the Tragically Hip met in Kingston? I bet everyone at Kings’ would be obsessed with that fact.”
“What makes a party school?”
“I think party schools are built on a variety of things, like drinking culture, safety, and especially tradition. At Queen’s, we do anything on the basis that former students did it for 100 years. There’s this game we play called “Wizard”, where every time you go up a flight of stairs you have to take a shot. A drinking culture. Safety. Queen’s was one of the first universities to shut down frats, so we have no actual frats associated with the university”
“How would you describe the vibe of a King’s party to someone who’s never been at King’s?”
“It’s like if you’re with all the smartest people you knew were the dumbest they could possibly be for three hours. We’re also really creative and love a theme, Like last year we had the toga party, princess party, and the Inferno party… brilliant.”
“What’s one misconception you think people have about the party life at King’s?”
“I think people think that we don’t know how to party, or that we’re all introverts, or that we sit around philosophizing, but the truth is we know how to party, the parties are small but mighty. They might start as wine nights, but they turn into something a lot bigger. “
“How are King’s parties unique in comparison to other schools?”
“I think that they are forceful because they are our outlet. King’s students all have to be put together and smart all the time, so our parties are a release of that. And because it’s so tight-knit, everything that happens affects everyone. We’re just really creative. Look at the Inferno party… because it’s so tight-knit, everything that happens affects everyone. The music is also great but “Bobcaygeon” is guaranteed to play and there is nothing you can do about it.”
“Are there differences in drinking at the two schools?”
“What people drink and how much they drink is a big one. People at Queen’s drink beer, in big quantities, in big groups. But it looks like at King’s everything we do, we go hard.”
This year’s FYP program has one of the lowest enrollment rates in years. It’s imperative, now more than ever, that we reestablish some confidence in ourselves. Yes, Queen’s is a party school but so are we; we just like to let off steam in our own bookish way. And that’s okay. One of our strengths is that we’re just different enough — King’s and Queen’s may be very different, but we’re both party royalty.
