With the Boston Police Department requiring Harvard to comply with a more complicated set of regulations than ever before, the details of this year’s Harvard-Yale game have been shrouded in a certain degree of mystery. Although the tailgate rules have been finalized and widely publicized, many students still have questions (i.e. can I dance on the roof of a Ford Explorer?) about how Saturday morning’s festivities will play out.
At last, here in concise and clear terminology for the every day student is a guideline of everything a Yalie needs to know to survive a weekend in Cantab-ville.
The only thing every Yalie needs to do while still in the Have is purchase a ticket. You can do this at the Ray Tompkins House next to the Payne Whitney Gymnasium, which is open from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. today. The ticket will cost you $15. Be forewarned: several residential college masters have warned that all seats are reserved and each student can only buy one ticket, so if you want to sit with your friends all of you will need to trek over to the RTH en masse.
For those not lucky enough to know someone with a car, buses will depart from Phelps Gate today at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 7:30 a.m.
The Friday bus will drop you off at the Museum of Comparative Zoology parking lot on Oxford Street. From there you can meander around Harvard’s pristine campus looking for a kegger. Good luck.
If you choose to spend tonight in your own bed in New Haven, Saturday’s bus will drop you off in front of Harvard Stadium. Across the street on Ohiri Field you’ll find a massive Yale-Harvard student barbecue, where the residential colleges and those student groups who have been granted a parking spot will be grilling away. If you happen to be in charge of one of the afore-mentioned tailgates, know this: You need to arrive at the field between 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Don’t cut it close; those Cantabs are punctual. But if you’re not driving a car full of burger patties and High Life, feel free to show up anytime.
What you won’t see — alumni tailgates. Exiled from the general hedonism, the alumni are tailgating in several other parking lots.
But wait, what about all those obscure regulations those straitlaced Puritans have imposed on tailgating revelry? Yes, a few things have changed since the last time you visited the City on a Hill.
Here are the commandments you must obey to party with the Cantabs, straight from the mouth of John Harvard. First, thou shalt not bring kegs. Kegs will be provided, but by a liquor distributor, not Sigma Chi. That liquor distributor will be checking IDs and passing out bracelets to those over 21. Without a bracelet, your lips won’t be touching any of the golden brew.
Zac Corker, special assistant for Social Programming at the Harvard dean’s office, said Harvard Police will be manning the gates to make sure everybody follows the legal limit on alcohol transportation. Corker also said four Boston police officers will be present, although he did not know any specifics about their role. He said the police will be there just to make sure that nobody gets out of control, not to actively seek out students.
“I don’t think anyone’s going to walk around trying to get people into trouble,” Corker said.
Some residential college masters have also warned that Boston Police will be confiscating false identification.
Second, U-Haul trailers, Winnebagos and RVs are strictly forbidden. Looks like you’ll be shaking your booty on the roof of a Range Rover instead. And you might be considerably less inebriated while you try to gyrate around a Yakima Rack: In accordance with Boston liquor transport law, a ticket holder can only transport 20 gallons of beer, three gallons of other alcoholic beverages (think wine coolers) or one gallon of alcohol to the tailgate.
And that girlfriend from Cornell? You’ll have to buy her a $10 ticket from the box office to gain admission to the Ohiri Field tailgate, in addition to a $30 general admission ticket to the game. And that’s not for the student seating area either. Now might be the time to reevaluate your relationship.
In light of all these regulations, what are the odds of actually having fun at this tailgate? Maybe not as bad as you think, according to planners from both schools.
“In the face of adversity, people get creative,” Harvard Undergraduate Council President Matthew Mahan said. “I think more thought has gone into it than in the past. We may lose a little bit of the craziness, but it’ll be a great tailgate.”