Rag Week In Review

gizmo

Right so, I decided to sum up my views on the week gone by, mainly cos I'm bored, but also for the benefit of those who didn't bother going to anything this year on the off chance they'll go next year instead.

Monday
Daytime

To start the day and indeed week off myself and a mate headed down to the bar at around 3.30. Now fair enough it was early and you wouldn’t normally find many in the bar at that hour but this was Rag Week dammit and we thought there'd be loads here. Unfortunately we were wrong, the place, as rugbug86 mentioned on the day, was empty. Now will someone please explain to me why, on the first day of Rag Week, the main student bar wasn’t packed? Note: If someone says "but the bar is ****e" I'll kill someone. I've been in the bar nearly every Tuesday this year and it’s always full and the e3 drinks excuse doesn’t apply. It’s RAG WEEK, ffs people shouldn’t mind paying an extra e1 or so for a drink during this week. *cough* ANYWAY we still hada bit of craic among ourselves and stayed till like 5 before heading home, getting some dinner and having a few more drinks in preparation for the night to come...


Dance / DJ Night

Now to be honest I bloody well hate Dance music so I was mildly sceptical going to this thing but as we said before we left the apartment, twas better than stayin' at home. Anyway myself and a few mates headed over to the Hub at 9.30 expecting there to be at least a few people there. Oh how wrong we were. There were about 10 other people in the Old Bar and I got Ticket #1 for my jacket upstairs, not a good start to say the least. The dance music, however, had not started so we were treated to some kickass AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and a couple more rock tunes while the stage was being setup. Since there were sfa people there myself and the lads decided that the only thing to do was get a seat and get drunk or at least get started while we waited on the rest of the people to arrive. Thankfully a constant stream of people started arriving and by 11.30 or so there was a nice crowd in the place. Large enough for some good atmosphere but not packed so that it was impossible to get a drink. I won't comment too much on the music mainly since its not my thing but I was told by a mate it was good. In the end though we had a great night, met loadsa people we knew eventually and had some craic - A good one all in all.


Tuesday
Rag Trip

Waking up this morning was more difficult after the previous night but by 1.05 we had cracked open our first can on the bus on the way to our first stop for the day ,NUI Maynooth. As some people may know the Maynooth bar is actually really nice so it was a welcome return this year. (For those who didn't go last year, we also started there that year)

Anyway, following an hour or so there we started off to our next location, which was only revealed to us when we got back on the bus - Newbridge. Now I don't know exactly how long it took to get there but it was by no means long and the craic on the bus certainly made it go faster. Our destination in Newbridge was a pub called 'The Keg' which despite the fact we were told it was by no means the nicest pub in the town it was still pretty nice. They had a DJ set up and a small dancefloor which was full within the hour. There were also e3 drinks which didn’t go down to badly at all. One point however, there was no water in the men’s toilets upstairs so that meant no flushing of toilets, no washing of hands etc... Luckily some of us had the intelligence to check for a downstairs toilet which HAD running water, one hopes the rest did likewise.

Anyway after our 2 (I think) hours there were up we bundled back onto the bus for the next stop. This, as we discovered, was to be Carlow. Here, our first destination was a pub called Scraggs however we ended up alternating between there and another place called Tullys around the corner. Both pubs ended up being pretty damned decent, with some good prices and in Tullys at least, some kickass cocktails. (Hey, we needed something different from Bulmers and Vodka!) Then at about 11.30 or so we headed to the nightclub. Now I'm going to be honest, at this stage I was beginning to feel the effects so if anything I say sounds odd give me the benefit of the doubt m'kay! Right so the nightclub we went to was called The Foundry and going in, it didn’t seem too bad. The one thing I will point out was that the bouncers were absolute pricks, they were refusing a good few DCU students, some of which had only student IDs and they even tried to refuse the supervisor/SU guy on our bus for some unknown reason. The ones guarding the back door out onto the smoking area were all pricks too and were stopping some people from getting back in, despite the fact that they had stamps. Luckily we didn’t have that problem and got back in eventually and finished off the night between the bar and dancefloor. At around 2.30 we headed back to the bus and, for awhile at least, had abit more craic until most people started falling asleep.

So what did I think of it overall? Well tbh, I thought it was ****in' savage. Hada class day and it was just as good, if not better than last year. Our supervisor/SU guy on the bus, Peter, was great craic and dead on, if any of you SU people are reading this then promote that guy.

So, suggestions for next year? Well how’s about one or two more buses, surely you SU folk can handle more than 250 people! Also, the nightclub we went to in Carlow was also open to Carlow IT students which may explain why it was so full and why some DCU peeps were being refused entry, better to book out the entire place like was done last year, having increased numbers on the trip would make that easier I assume. Oh and do us a favour and advertise the tickets for the thing more than 5hours in advance please.


Wednesday
Indie Rock Night

Despite surviving the previous day I still needed a wee bit of rest before going again so my day didn’t really start till around 6pm. We decided we'd have a few more drinks in the apartment this time so as to avoid the deadness in the bar between 9 and 10 so at around 10.15 we headed over. Unfortunately once again there were sfa people in there. The first band that I saw playing were the 6 piece fronted by the chick with the blonde hair. Now I'll once again admit that I dislike Indie Rock immensely however, my complaint about this band was that they were soooooo dull. Now that’s not to say they were bad but they were what I would consider chillout music and hence were completely unsuitable for the night in question. Anyway, my main problem of the night was that, unlike Monday night, the place wasn’t filling up at all, so much so that by nearly 12 there was still **** all people in the bar. The Chalets were soon playing and all their fans were gathered around the stage in the Old Bar making the place even more empty looking. With the night looking like a flop we decided to cut out losses and finish off the night back in the apartment with our supply of alcomahol and our Jimmy Carr DVDs.


Thursday
Irish Rock Night

With the failure of Wednesday night still fresh in my mind I was slightly sceptical of going tonight however I hada great night the last time I was at Aslan here (First Year Freshers Ball) so we all decided we'd go and hopefully end the week on a high note. Anyway at around 10 we headed over to the Hub and we immediately knew it was going to be a better night. There was a far bigger crowd in there and there was a small queue at the door for the next hour or so, hence the place filled up quickly. People also seemed to be in much better form so that helped the atmosphere in the place also. The bands playing throughout the night seemed rather varied, with the likes of Turn, some rap/hip-hop group and a few others. Now I didn’t actually see most of these guys since I spent most of the night in the pool area but I was told they were pretty good fun. Out in the pool area there was still some room so myself and the rest of the gang we were with had class craic. Then of course there was Aslan themselves. Now while I'm not going to profess to being a major Aslan fan I'll still admit that they really do get the crowd going and as I mentioned earlier I've never heard a DCU crowd sing along louder than with Angie and Crazy World. In the end it turned out to be one of the best nights we’ve had down in the Hub in awhile.


So in summary, as I’m sure you’ll have guessed at this stage, I thought it was a great week. The events themselves, bar Wednesday, were all great craic although I’m sure The Chalets fans will disagree. The Rag Trip was, as I said, fantastic. And the other events on around campus such as Mini BB and that trampoline-y thing, while kinda strange, were good craic too. Fair dues to the SU for putting on a great week and hopefully they’ll be able to build on this to make next year even better.

Quality review!My rag week starts monday week!:D

gizmo

Heh, indeed it does and I'll be down there for a few days of it with some friends. Really looking forward to seeing how they compare tbh.

StupidLikeAFox

Fair balls, i jus couldnt afford that amount of partying

gizmo

Heh, well technically either could I but I said **** it, we only have 4 Rag Weeks during our time in college so imho its insane to not over a few quid, I can always just not go out for he next few weeks...or until Galway Rag Week...:D

Suaimhneach

Send that to press@dcusu.ie and they might put it in an tarbh. Alternatively send it to The College View tbh. All that effort shouldnt go to waste.

Though I'd like to have reviews of tehevents you didnt attend, for example Rodrigo y Gabriela, who f uckin' rocked the house tbh.

gizmo

Meh, I think its abit too personal and biased to go into those tbh...

Well I heard R y G were fantastic again, twas a pity they werent on Wednesday night then it would have been flawless!

steveland?

Faceless Man wrote:

Now will someone please explain to me why, on the first day of Rag Week, the main student bar wasn’t packed?

Someone was saying it was impossible to get a computer in the labs in Henry Grattan on the Monday... someone explain why, on the first day of Rag Week, the labs were packed and now the bar...

The mind boggles...

cooker3

Faceless Man wrote:

Meh, I think its abit too personal and biased to go into those tbh...

Your personal and biased, Never!!!!!!!

sionnach

Faceless Man wrote:

Meh, I think its abit too personal and biased to go into those tbh...

tbh it's about time some honest opinions found their way into them, ever notice how every event mentioned in them is well attended and everyone has a great time? Feck that, tell it like it is.

gizmo

Hrm, thats also a good point. I'll tidy it up and mail it to An Tarbh before Wednesday so...it'll give me something to do. At least with something like this people can take it like it is and not have to worry about it being biased towards "OMFG TEH SU R D BESTEST" etc...:D

rugbug86

I had a decent enough week, but no better than i would have had had it been a normal week and i was in the bar.

Anto and Moe

Why is it called 'Rag week'?

Crucifix

Anto and Moe wrote:

Why is it called 'Rag week'?

Because you're supposed to 'rag off classes' I think.

gizmo

Actually only found this out last year...The term Rag Week comes from the week of organised events whose goal was to raise money for charity in colleges in England. It either comes from the term "Raising And Giving" or when the whole thing started back in 1900 when a group of students sold rags with poems on them, in order to give something back to the poor. Either one seems valid tbh. This came from good 'ol Wikipedia btw.

It has both made its way over to colleges over here and also changed its meaning as there doesnt seem to be much fundraising done during those week long drinking binges we all seem to go on.

rugbug86

it can also stand for Raise A Grand

steveland?

rugbug86 wrote:

it can also stand for Raise A Grand

I think that's just something the SU made up for the charity events going on last week

rugbug86

its been Raise A Grand since i started in dcu...

gizmo

Wikipedia never lies tbh...:D

Lantis

So how long did that Mini Brother yoke actually last? The mini was empty when I went home on Monday anyway.

rayfitz

Alrite faceless,
quality review, fair play to ya for doin the 4 days. I was i bits after the trip. Was on Peter's bus too, (sound man and a good organiser btw) down the back playin d "card" games on the way to maynooth. Didnt think it was as good as last years legendary trip though.

gizmo

Hah, I was actually only a few seats up from ye and was talkin to most of ye at some point during the day.

Last year was class alrite but the places we went last year were dodgy enough, especially that nightclub at the end. Not to mention our bus breaking down afterwards!

StupidLikeAFox

As regards the rag trip, rumour has it most people were awfully fúcked come the nightclub part? As in too fúcked to enjoy it?

gizmo

Hrm, there was a good lot of drunkness alrite and I wouldnt be surprised if some werent in the best shape and couldnt enjoy it. But for the most part I thought it was alrite. My main gripe was the sheer amount of people around either in there or trying to get in. Like I said, getting a place to ourselves would probably have been a better idea...