A comprehensive review of “around the world”: Is it worth all of the hype?

ROHAN ARORA, Asst. Opinion Editor—“Around the world” is considered by most Denisonians as the premier party night of the fall semester. Aside from D-day, it is the only day that you can expect the majority of the student body to put their work aside and pick up their natties’ and beer bongs and get to slammin’.

The anticipation had been building the whole week, and especially since Friday, its original intended date. Most of the pre-games started around 9 p.m. that night, and the majority of registered parties were opened to the public between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. There were definitely more open parties than any other night, and there was a proportionally greater amount of people shuffling around East quad too.

The ‘rules’ for around the world are pretty simple: every registered party, typically hosted by sports teams and fraternities, has to pick a country as a theme, and base their party’s décor on their respective themes. The guidelines are easy enough and have the potential to create a night of border shattering proportions, when done right.

I could not help but get the feeling, however, that a good portion of the registered parties did not even care at all about their themes. For a few parties, there was no clarity as to where exactly I was supposed to be. This is not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but if this is really a ‘huge’ and ‘unique’ party night as everyone claims it is, I would expect some sort of adherence to the overarching narrative for the spirit if the occasion. It honestly just felt like any other night, with some parties having loosely themed props and drinks.

My biggest complaint about the night was, despite it being propagated as its own unique night, it proved to be indistinguishable from any other night out with friends. Sure, beaver beach was more packed than I have seen it (at least this year) but it all still wrapped up by 1, and did not seem to carry any ‘special’ undertones.

To be fair, it wasn’t a bad night considering the school has a total of 2,400 students. For perspective, some dorms at Big 10 schools hold upwards of 3,000 students. If you’re up against that, Denison parties have no hope. As far as Denison goes, for the number of students and the authoritarian time restrictions set forth by administration, it was a solid 7/10.