Visitors from other schools and states came to Campustown for Unofficial St. Patrick’s Day.
“There is nothing like this in Virginia at all. (Unofficial) is an experience,” said Xavier Beverly, student at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va.
Beverly’s friend David Imburg, from Virginia Commonwealth University, also said he has not seen anything like the Unofficial atmosphere before.
In the past, visitors have received a higher percentage of citations from police on Unofficial than University students have; but Beverly and Imburg said they were more afraid of getting a jaywalking ticket than a drinking ticket.
“If you just stay on the sidewalk and don’t act like a drunk person, everything will be fine,” Beverly said. “Usually with this much alcohol involved, someone winds up throwing a punch. Luckily, that hasn’t been the case so far.”
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
Another visitor, Sam Miranda, freshman at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, echoed Beverly’s sentiment that the day would progress without any issues.
“Once the alcohol hits your lips you are invincible,” Miranda said.
Some celebrants came to campus for a repeat visit.
Saat Reddy, graduate student at Loyola University in Chicago, said he came to campus for the third consecutive year to celebrate Unofficial.
“If I don’t get a ticket and don’t lose my shoes, I’m already doing better than I have,” Reddy said.
Alex Hopkins, student at Triton College in River Grove, Ill., said he was on campus visiting friends for Unofficial and knew a lot of people coming from Indiana University and elsewhere.
“This is probably one of the best party weekends at one of the best party schools,” Hopkins said.
Mihir Patel, student at DePaul University, said he started celebrating around noon.
“It’s the greatest holiday ever made on this planet,” Patel said. “It’s better than Christmas.”
Campus visitor John Madsen said his plans for Unofficial included following his University friends around. David Myers, another campus visitor, said he was just going to see where the day took him.
Officials expected about 18,000 people to visit campus for the Friday celebrations.
