Green Week
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Green Week is an annual event held at the Monash University, Clayton campus, in Melbourne.[1] It is historically run during the second week of classes in second semester, and is operated by the Activities department of the Monash Student Association. During Green Week, teams of students will compete against each other in various events instead of attending classes, as well as participate in organised night activities. Beer drinking and drinking games are a well documented emphasis of Green Week, as well as social competitions such as scavenger hunts and trivia nights. Each year, winning teams are rewarded for their efforts with slabs of beer.
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[edit] History
[edit] Farm Week
The tradition of Green Week began in the late 1960s, when it was known as Farm Week. During the day, teams would compete in drinking games such as boat races and centurions; on the nights, there would be performances by bands, trivia nights, and "night games," where students would take to the streets of Melbourne after midnight and cause a ruckus. In some of the wilder traditions, hay bales were used to block off sections of major surrounding roads - in particular, the very busy intersection between North Rd and Princes Hwy was blocked off and occupied by students having a champagne breakfast until police arrived to remove them. Cleaning and repair bills for the university premises were always invoiced to the Activities department, and were always extensive.
Causing the most controversy, however, was the scavenger hunt; in particular, the competition known as the "hardest to obtain object." Teams would attempt to steal the most difficult thing that they could, and at the end of the week would regale the other teams with their story. The array of entries was impressive, and included: the behind post from the M.C.G., St Kilda's 1966 premiership cup, the tongs from the Victorian Premier's residence, Grantley Dee (the blind DJ from 3AW), "No Entry" signs indicating military presence at 400m and 100m respectively, and the plaque from the Royal Australian Mint. The stories of failed attempts were often more impressive: the front door of the Victorian Chief of Police, a boom-gate from Huntingdale station, and the foundation stone from the Sydney Opera House.
It was the plaque from the Mint which created the most publicity. Taken just metres from the 24/7/52 guard post, obtaining it required a painstaking procession of students, each with screwdrivers, making half or quarter turns as they passed by. Ultimately, several federal police came to Monash to deal with the theft, causing significant problems for Activities. This, along with the repeated cleaning expenses, led to the eventual demise of Farm Week after 1984.[2]
[edit] Green Week
Green Week in its current form was founded by Activities Chairperson Colin Robertson in 1988, and has been run each year since. Other than the obvious omission of the Hardest to Obtain Object competition, the format was roughly unchanged from that of Farm Week.
Participation in Green Week has declined over the past few years. The student demographic has changed, and the days when students would regularly drink beer between classes have changed. In the early 1990s, in excess of thirty teams would regularly compete in Green Week, but in 2007 there were fewer than fifteen entrants. As such, there are now few large-scale external incidents; however, on-campus participation is still strong amongst established teams.
Each year, Green Week is associated with a theme based upon the number. Recent themes have included:
- Green Week Episode XV: The Student Menace
- Green Week XVII: Nearly Legal
- Green Week XVIII: All Growed Up
- Green Week XIX: I Was Only 19
Themes are very vague, and teams are not expected to adhere to them strongly; they merely serve to give each Green Week a slightly different feeling.
Green Week is, in many ways, similar to Prosh Week, which is generally run two weeks after Green Week at the cross-town rival University of Melbourne.
[edit] Events
[edit] Current Events
With the exception of the scavenger hunt, all event winners and place getters earn points for their teams, contributing to the final placings. Traditionally, beer was the only beverage served during each event. In 2007, Monash University introduced a new alcohol policy limiting the number of beers in an event to six for males and four for females. This resulted in many beers, particularly those for spillage, being replaced with milk or lemonade.
[edit] Scavenger Hunt
On the Thursday prior to Green Week, a pre-scavenger hunt list is released, which demands teams to make a long road trip from Melbourne, which can typically be completed within a weekend. At midday on the Thursday of Green Week, the actual scavenger hunt list is released, comprising of a short road trip (taking maybe four or five hours to complete), a list of people, and a series of objects which can be found in Melbourne. The presentation is held at midday on the Friday. Traditionally, the team with the most points automatically wins slabs of beer, but no addition points to their Green Week tally. The lengths of these road trips have been significantly reduced in recent years to increase dwindling participation rates; previously, no pre-scavenger hunt list existed, and the road trip for the scavenger hunt took almost the entire allotted 24 hours to complete.
[edit] Trike Race
One member of each team is required to ride a small tricycle around a circuit, drinking a pot of beer at each of three stations.
[edit] Dutch Relay
Four team members must sequentially spin five times on the spot before running to a table, drinking a beer, spinning again, and then returning to the beginning.
[edit] Mastermindless
The annual trivia night, priced at $60 per table. The winning team automatically wins slabs of beer, and all place-getting teams still receive points towards their team's tally.
[edit] Iron gut
One member of each team is forced to eat a repulsive concoction of foods and beverages as quickly as possible without vomiting. Dishes such as cubes of lard mixed with olives, and milkshakes with fish oil and chicken stock, are typical examples.
[edit] Billy carts
Teams must build billy carts, which are then pulled around a flat circuit by two team members, with one driver. Points are individually awarded for both the billy cart race, and the best design/construction.
[edit] Rogaining
One member of each team must sprint between four stations, drinking a beer at each station, and one to conclude. Rogaining is known for being very punishing on the stomach muscles, and vomiting is common.
[edit] Pool Competition
Knockout mixed doubles Eight ball tournament.
[edit] Karaoke
Run at the same time as the pool competition; the best individual male and female performers earn one point for their team.
[edit] Tug of War
Eight members of each team compete in a standard tug of war.
[edit] Centurion
One member of each team must drink 100 shots of beer, one each thirty seconds. Vomiting is allowed up to the 80th shot, provided the vomit is reconsumed. Everybody who finishes earns one point, and the winner is determined by a three-pot scull-off. This is perhaps the crowning event of the week.[3]
[edit] Four Legless
Similar to a three-legged race; three members of each team are taped together below the knee, such that there are four legs to run with. The teams must then run to four checkpoints around the university, typically the four libraries, and the person in the middle drinks a beer at each checkpoint.
[edit] Boat Races
The glamour event of Green Week. Teams of five, containing at least one male and one female member, consume pots of beer consecutively. The final member, the anchor, is required to consume extra pots if any other member of the team spills.
[edit] Shot of Green
Teams attempt to produce the best photos from the first four days of Green Week. Shot of Green has become particularly hotly contested, with some teams appointing a dedicated photographer for the week. This is the final points-paying event of the week.
[edit] Former and Unofficial Events
[edit] World War Three
A giant campus-wide fight involving water balloons, eggs, flour, etc. Billed as everyone vs the Activities committee, there were never prizes for winning this event; it merely led to a hefty cleaning bill at the end of it.
[edit] Hardest to Obtain Object
This Farm Week event comprised primarily of teams stealing the most difficult things that they could. Fear of legal backlash and hefty replacement costs led to its replacement with the much more legal Scavenger Hunt.
[edit] Beer Titration
One member of each team was to drink an entire six-pack from Trogdor, a beer bong with a hose long enough to stretch from the first floor of the campus centre to the ground floor, and a trigger-nozzle at the end, at which the gauge pressure exceeded 500kPa. The event ran only once, and was deemed too dangerous thereafter.
[edit] Shotgun Centurion
Performed unofficially in tandem with the Centurion, the shotgun centurion involves drinking the same volume of beer (eight cans) in the same length of time (fifty minutes), by shotgunning one can when the Centurion reaches shots #12, 25, 37, 50, 67, 75, 87 and 100. 2007 also saw the introduction of a strawpedo centurion, with competitors strawpedoing a premixed vodka drink on each tenth shot.
[edit] Teams
Green Week teams consist of groups of up to twenty friends, and can usually be pigeon-holed into year/degree groups. In general, teams will represent the faculties of Engineering, Science, Arts and, more recently, Biomedical Science; other faculties are much less well represented, if at all. Each year will also generally see one or two teams of jaffies (first-year students), who are automatically made the butt of most jokes and chants through the week. The Halls of Residence also have a strong tradition of entering teams in Green Week; Farrer Hall has been historically the most successful, winning Green Week most recently in 2003.
[edit] Traditions
Team mascots are a well-established tradition of Green Week. Mascots of the past have included such random objects as a cardboard cut-out of David Beckham to an ordinary garden rake. It is also customary for teams to steal and vandalise the mascots of other teams for presentation at the scavenger hunt. Recovery of the former S.A.S. mascot, a deer-hunting trophy known as Passmore, is an annual item on the scavenger hunt, but its whereabouts is unknown, so its recovery is unlikely. Chanting is a key part of Green Week: teams often have their own theme songs, chants are made to deride oppositions, and chants are often made up on the spot.
The green cordial scull is a long-standing scavenger hunt tradition, with team members required to consume as much as two litres of green cordial concentrate in front of the crowd for points. It is also traditional for teams to be required to find the largest and smallest green things, the oldest valid student ID number, and a list of people who had pashed the Activities chairpersons prior to Green Week. Activities chairs also commonly ask for "non-returnable" bottles of wine, for their own post-week celebrations.
[edit] Prizes
[edit] Team Prizes
- The team who wins Green Week receives four cubes of beer.
- The team who wins Mastermindless receives four cubes of beer.
- The team who wins the Scavenger Hunt receives four cubes of beer.
All events previously attracted higher prizes of ten slabs for Green Week and Mastermindless, and fifteen for the Scavenger Hunt, which attracted a higher prize because it costs a significant amount of money in petrol, accommodation, and miscellaneous, to win the hunt. These were reduced post-VSU due to a reduced Activities budget.
Former Green Week winners are listed below.
| Year | Green Week Winner | Scavenger Hunt Winner |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Team 9 | Team 9 |
| 2006 | M.U.L.L.E.T. tied with S.A.S. (Monkey See, Monkey Drink) | Frunk Ducks |
| 2005 | Team 9 | S.A.S. (Monkey See, Monkey Drink) |
| 2004 | Too Piste | Frunk Ducks |
| 2003 | Farrer Hall | Pokies & Associated |
| 2002 | Team Lemming | Passmore's II |
| 2001 | To Beer | Team Delta Pig Massive |
| 2000 | Team Seven | Team Seven |
| 1999 | Farrer Hall tied with Team Ass | Team Ass |
| 1998 | Team Shitscared | Team Shitscared |
| 1997 | Team Shitscared | Team Shitscared |
| 1996 | Team Shitscared | Team Shitscared |
| 1995 | Comedy Club | Farrer Hall |
[edit] Individual Prizes
Each Green Week awards a King, Queen and Jester, each of which receives a series of merchandise and drinks as a prize. King and Queen are awarded to the male and female respectively who are the overall best performers during the week. This usually means that they have:
- Competed in many events for their team;
- Typically won an individual event;
- Always been "enhancing the Green Week spirit," by always being present, chanting, encouraging rivalry, etc.;
- Have lend some assistance to the Activities Chairpersons in keeping the week running smoothly.
The Jester is awarded to the person who has caused the most entertainment by completely disrespecting themselves during the week. Jesters of the past have usually been covered with vomit, taken off their clothes and covered themselves with oil, or other misdemeanours which would disgust most people.
Former winners of the King, Queen and Jester awards are:
| Year | Green Week King | Green Week Queen | Green Week Jester |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Jack Hertzog tied with Mark Kissane | Jess White | Dan Moriarty |
| 2006 | Sean O'Connor | Michelle Rogers | Tony Kastelan tied with Luke Thompson |
| 2005 | Edmund Boland | Lauren Bourke | Joel Sutton |
| 2004 | Matt Pay | Tash Janetzki | Mark Kissane |
| 2003 | Dan Pay | Bronnie Dean | |
| 2002 | Mark Dallas Jones aka "Jonesy" | Jacqui Blackley | |
| 2001 | James Mulholland | Jacqui Blackley | |
| 2000 | Michael "Potsy" Porter | Nicole Whitburn | |
| 1999 | Aaron Amatnieks | Melinda Tyack | |
| 1998 | "Crackers" | Bessie Abbott | |
| 1997 | Mick Crossland | Bessie Abbott | Dean Harrigan |
| 1996 | Guy Rowsen | Bessie Abbott | Brett Robertson |
| 1995 | Pat Maiden |
[edit] External links
- Green Week Photographs at Monashphotos.com
- Andre Tan's "Best Ever" Winning Shot of Green Entry from Green Week XIX
