Lustrum
So important that it only happens every five years and even has its own committee dedicated to it. Lustrum was THE event of the year (or more collection of events). From the 10th to the 17th of February 2023, people’s sleep schedule took a major hit (assuming that it was fine before that).
The energy was already off the charts at the opening party at the Borrel café Oblomov and people made the best of it with the free bar and the killer music. Hits such as Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” and the Macarena made sure that everyone was dancing – “Rasputin” by Boney M. got especially Valerie from the Lustrum committee on her feet with the typically Russian “squat dance” (from Just Dance) that is apparently tradition for her to do. Unfortunately, not as many people as expected could show up due to the bus strikes but it was still really fun. Most times though, people tried to forget that they had to get up really early the next morning to go on the Rotterdam excursion on day two.
Day two started very early, especially for the excursion committee, and I think that even without the party the night before, people would have rather slept in than taken the 8:00 train to Rotterdam. Poor Sil from the board woke up EVEN earlier prepared to take the train before the planned one and then had to wait at the train station for his fellow board members to arrive to take the correct train. In Rotterdam, there were some fun activities planned including going to the TEC ART festival 2023, seeing a guy DJ and work out at the same time, and Pierre making everyone walk to the other side of the city. The day ended with consuming a giant pizza in the middle of the night and then doing an Irish goodbye after due to being too tired to actually say goodbye.
Day three started surprisingly late but when remembering the end of day two, it started to make sense. It was time for a boozy brunch at 14.00h (at this time, it could have also just been a good old-fashioned lunch, but alliterations always make things better) at Donna’s Social Club, a 50s themed diner. The dress code was 50s fashion. Some expressed their visual style by putting a modern twist with their clothing to protest gender roles and support freedom of expression. Some people went even more modern by dressing for the current decade. The food was delivered to tables of four to share and the tables were divided into vegetarian, vegan and no dietary restrictions. Zuzanna ate from the vegan food but since every table got food for four people, she half-forced half-offered the other tables to join her in consuming the vegan options in addition to their own food. But I guess it was for their own good, to quote Valerie from the media committee: “Eat your vegetables – share your vegetables, guys!”. Due to this sharing, an argument broke out over which food is better: the vegan or the non-vegan one. This argument was ultimately settled when the chicken waffles were served and won the contest, proven by Julian, Leo, and Pierre crying. After the brunch, everyone returned to the trash-filled streets (the garbage men striked) and (hopefully) safely escaped the fire close to IKEA that everyone got a warning about a few hours prior.
The game night on day four at Lust left marks that are still evident today. There were epic battles in Uno, Jenga, beer pong (which was definitely the loudest), and Mario Kart – to that I will quote Savvy: “NEXT TIME BEN IS GOING DOWN”. But Savvy’s quote shows the still very notable divisions and rivalries this event left behind. IK has turned into a warzone and at every corner people are waiting to ask for a rematch. It’s madness! Anyways, there were also some mysterious, sneaky underground games being played such as the Politeness Nightclub and Call of Cthulhu RPG. Generally, the night was really fun and birthed the iconic picture of Ben and Julian shaking hands while holding the powerful gnome award concocted by Estere (thank you to Estere for taking the time to make it).
Time for day five, and, fitting to Valentine’s Day, what better thing to do than IK Speed dating at the literary café. The night oozed romance. The background music played Whitney and Celine and all the other must-haves, and several people actually found their true love. The new power couple is definitely Julian and Levi, but honourable mentions include Julian and Suzie, and Savvy and Levi. Generally, the evening made for some great memes which is basically all that matters to everyone and we managed to only break one glass.
Day six was for learning or so everyone thought with the events being workshops, but it was merely a way to separate the artistic talent from the … others … who tried. Hey, at least there were delicious free snacks and drinks, and you could see what other people made.
The first workshop was at the Harmonie building and was the drawing workshop. It consisted of randomly picking prompts about what to draw, in what art style to draw it and what colours to use. Examples of this would be Roos’ hot summer day in portrait style (she attempted to depict the Teletubbies baby in the sun but it was unfortunately wrongfully interpreted as Jesus), Savvy’s “Monkey with Fanta” in Romantic style (the extent of Romanticism in his work is debatable since it looked more like Monkey from Kung Fu Panda), Pierre’s futuristic depiction of Julian and Ben as BFFs, which is only controversial if you interpret it that way. And finally, there was Suzie’s still life of an IK borrel with, according to the assumption of a fellow participant, included a beer of piss. What is the one lesson to take away from this workshop? Hats are what make pigeons fancy.
The second workshop was the clay workshop at the Moshpit of Creation. Although the location was relatively far, it was nothing the members of IK couldn’t handle. The instructor was very nice and everyone had a great time basically just making a mess. Leo committed too deeply in making the biggest clay snake and missed the whole purpose of the workshop (making a mug) but the biggest challenge of the workshop was Max carrying a box full of everyone’s clay works to the IK office after the workshop.
Day seven was the day to recharge before the big finale. There were rumours of an unofficial game of hide and seek at IKEA, but they were never confirmed and most people probably needed a quick break from Lustrum.
How is it already day eight?! No, that can’t be possible. And yet, it is. The time has come for the BFOP (dun dun duuuun). However you want to interpret what it stands for – Big Final Outcome Party, Big Fuck Off Party, Be Fucked Or Party, it’s all been said – people came together one last time to celebrate Lustrum. Despite bus strikes or the venue being in a somewhat shady-looking area, everyone made their way to Graanfabriek. There were talented musical acts like Painted House Parties (Ghazi with special feature Nara from the Lurstum committee), Between Plateaus, and Red Manta (drum and bass), and the dancing helped fight the cold. An unexpected guest appearance was Dan (one of the Sociology teachers) which made for some great bonding experiences. Levi was so drunk that he spent 70 euros on buying drinks with the majority of them being for everyone else. And everyone slowly gathered by the heater as the night went on (I guess the dancing didn’t help enough against the cold in the end). The impression IK made couldn’t have been that bad as, according to Leo, her cousin seemed to like everyone. Everyone was surprised that we even needed the media (almost) committee there as Julian could’ve just taken all the pictures because he has the newest phone. A tip for the future though is: If you are being asked to leave Graanfabriek because the event is over – don’t leave your bike there as gates will close and you would have to figure out your way in. Another completely unrelated tip is: the gates don’t have to be rolled to the side – just push them and they will open.
Thanks again to the Lustrum Committee for their hard work. It was a really fun week and you guys did an awesome job!
Written by the Publishing Committee