Cambridge students pass out on pavements and stagger about in top hats and ball gowns after £215 ball

Cambridge students pass out on pavements and stagger about in top hats and ball gowns after £215 ball

• £215-a-ticket Trinity Ball becomes another excuse to get recklessly drunk
• Wealthy scions leave in the early hours staggering and swearing in streets
• Some teetered back to their rooms half naked and one flashed his genitals
  
• Others fought security staff as they were evicted from ball first held in 1838
• Students enjoyed champagne and oysters as they listened to Pixie Lott sing

By Julian Gavaghan

PUBLISHED: 06:12 EST, 19 June 2012 | UPDATED: 08:42 EST, 19 June 2012

As Britain’s elite students, they are the country’s leaders and thinkers of tomorrow.

But as the term at Cambridge University ended, the occasion became just another chance to get hopelessly drunk and frolic in the streets.

As the sun came up this morning, throngs of the young and wealthy scions staggered through the streets of the city following the lavish Trinity May Ball.

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Pased out: A student in a dinner jacket lies on the pavement after too much to drink at the May Trinity Ball

Frivolous: Girls clad in elegant gowns snigger and drunkenly dance their way through the streets of Cambridge

Defiant: One female student, who refused to dress in the elitist style, blows a raspberry at the photographer as a group of fellow scholars stagger out of the £215-a-ticket ball in the early hours of the morning

Wearing dinner jackets and top hats, some of the men passed out in pavements while others teetered home with no trousers on following the £215-a-ticket event.

THE BINGE-DRINKING MARATHONS THAT MARK THE SOCIAL CALENDAR

Binge-drinking has become an age-old ritual at Cambridge and there are even special drinking societies that organise debauched events like:

Caesarean Sunday is seen as the birth of the drinking parties for the summer term. It historically included members of Girton and Jesus colleges’ drinking society takes place at a park in Cambridge’s city centre, on the first bank holiday of the summer term. This year thousands of students got drunk, exposed themselves and fought.

Suicide Sunday: The party at Cambridge University is a traditional event in which hundreds of students celebrated finishing their exams. Three years ago the Suicide Sunday garden party, organised by the Wyver ns, 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

VT valley rally: Its winter equivalent, the VT valley rally, occurs during the annual Varsity ski trip, is quickly catching up to Suicide Sunday’s levels of debauchery. Last year female students stripped to their underwear in front of hundreds of onlookers, while both men and women simulated sex acts with each other.
Wyverns drinking society

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 Ferret drinking society: The Ferretz, an inter-collegiate drinking society, must consume 80 units on their initiat ion. They usually start with a bottle of gin and finish off with a bottle of port - consumed through a condom. Girls are also encouraged to kiss strangers.

Some were seen hurling abuse at passersby and fighting with security staff as they desperately tried to save the last morsels of their champagne and beer.

One unsavoury student was even seen flashing his penis in the street and laughing at his own loutish behaviour.

The women, who - like their male counterparts â€" were mostly educated at expensive public schools before arriving at Cambridge, were not much more dignified.

Some had to be carried back to their rooms by boyfriends, while others sniggered as they lurched through the same streets once trodden on by eminent scholars like Isaac Newton.

Others continued to celebrate at the expensive end-of-term party with drunken punt rides on the River Cam and a champagne breakfast in the college gardens.

The sold-out ball is the largest event of the Cambridge student social calendar and the coveted tickets cost a staggering £430 a couple.

Guests were treated to a lavish five-course meal served in Trinity Great Hall, followed by music from Pixie Lott, who is rumoured to have been paid £20,000 to headline.

Students could tuck in to oysters, hand-made crepes, a hog roast and a cascading chocolate fountain, while drinks were served from a floating punt on the river.

They could also opt for luxury spa treatments, a gamble at the casino or relaxing in the jazz tent.

The night was brought to a close with a spectacular fireworks display.

One reveller said: 'It was a brilliant night we had copious amounts of champagne and we all really enjoyed ourselves. Its just a great bit of fun.'

Trinity May Ball is held on the first Monday of May Week, which, despite the month in the title, always takes place in June after exams.

The first one was held in 1838 when 38 Trinitarians happily drank their way through 47 bottles of champagne, 12 of sherry, six of Mosel, two of Claret, six quarts of ale and 16 huge servings of punch at a post-race dinner at the Hoop Inn.

Dazed: A student rests on the pavement as others stagger home following the drunken event

Little and large: Two students - one of whom is wearing only boxer shorts and a jacket - wander along the same streets once trodden upon by eminent scscholars such as Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin

Dandified: Students dressed in all their finery wander along a lane carrying bouquets of flowers and beer

Merrily, merrily: Many students celebrated after the end-of-term party by taking punt rides. But it all became too much for one of tomorrow's possible great minds, right, when he fell asleep during the journey along the river

The ball has continued every year since, apart from 1910 when King Edward VII died and between 1939 and 1945 during the Second World War.

This latest intoxicated affair comes just a month after Cambridge students stripped off, vomited, urinated in flower beds and drank themselves into oblivion after more than 2,000 descended on a public park.

That afternoon culminated in an organised fight between more than 20 male students from the Caesarians â€" Jesus College’s drinking society â€" and their counterparts from Girton, the Green Giants.

And events from past years suggest that David Cameron might still have a long way to go to tackle Britain’s ‘binge drinking’ culture.

Having a ball: Students grin and dance in the street following the coveted event

Public displays: A student is evicted from the ball and has his beer spilled into the street by security guards, left, while a couple share a passionate moment on their way home

Grant event: Students frolic on a bridge during the much-anticipated Trinity May Ball, which began in 1838

VIDEO: The Vengaboys performed live at the ball

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