Annual open house prevails over cold weather
Every year College Royal puts on more events than is possible to recount. Not for nothing is it called the largest student-run open house in North America. And despite the unseasonably cold weather, this year’s College Royal – the 90th annual celebration – continued that long tradition without a hitch.
Ninety years of experience and a dedicated team of over 100 College Royal Society organizers ensured that little could upset this weekend-long exhibition, which took place on March 15 and 16.
The rural and agricultural events continued to be the big draw for many visiting students and families.
“I especially like how they promote a lot of the rural life stuff – like the beef show and the dairy show – to people that wouldn’t have any exposure to it,” said Nicholas Banexan, a fourth year zoology and history student who was participating the beef show for a second time.
As it is for so many others, College Royal is a part of his family’s history.
“I’ve had family that’s always done it growing up, so I wanted to be included in that since they always talk about it,” said Banexan.
Michelle Linington, this year’s College Royal Celebrant, says the event this year was a great success.
“It’s amazing that even with -20 degrees Celsius on Sunday we still managed to get multiple thousands of people out,” said Linington.
For students involved in organizing College Royal, it can be a pretty hectic few days getting everything ready for the big weekend.
“It’s always a high-stress time going in,” said Linington, “and a couple days before, you start to wonder how things are going to go, but we’re all really happy with the way the weekend went and the turnout and the attendance at all the events.”
While the unseasonably frigid weather kept the numbers slightly lower than usual – Linnington estimates that between 15,000 and 20,000 people attended over the weekend, compared to the 25,000 to 30,000 that have attended in years past – the quality of the events more than made up for those smaller numbers.
The cold weather will undoubtedly leave its mark on the legacy of this year’s College Royal.
“It was definitely one of the coldest College Royals we’ve had in a long time; the fact there is still a good foot of snow on the ground will be something to remember,” said Linington.
However, the success of the new “bigger and better” events will also be something to remember.
The Great Town and Gown Chilli Chow Down, sponsored by the University of Guelph in celebration of its 50th anniversary, invited restaurants from across Guelph to showcase their best chilli recipe. The 4-H Rabbit Hopping Show was another new event that was a big hit. Trained rabbits demonstrated their skills by navigating a series of tunnels, jumps and other obstacles.
Linington expects that both of these events will become staples of future College Royals.
Over the years, College Royal has evolved into an event not just for OAC students but one that involves every college at the University of Guelph. There were 3,000 student volunteers from 76 clubs involved this year.
The College Royal Society has the difficult task of coordinating it all, but, as Linnington says, “At the end of the day, it is the entire university that puts it on and hosts it.”