As you read this, the revelries of RAG week will be in full swing, in fact you’ll probably have already given away a small fortune in drunken change; but whatever you’ve made of RAG week – spare a minute to think about the people that have made it all happen.
Last Saturday, the day before RAG week kicked off, Vision sat down with Jo Clarke and Immy Stevenson – RAG week organisers, to ask them about what goes on behind the scenes of York’s RAG week.
They started by telling me how long ago their election as RAG week organisers felt, and how some of their more ambitious ideas didn’t exactly materialize; Jo explains, “even the simplest things become incredibly difficult when you start having to jump through the hoops of University bureaucracy – room bookings, health and safety, scheduling – all these things really take a LOT of time!”
In fact, they told me, such bureaucratic obstacles accounted for the lowest points in the whole process, with their dreams of a world record breaking attempt being smashed with a single ‘NO’ from an unidentified University “big cheese”.
They explain that the original plan was to beat the biggest toga party in the world, by rounding up students onto the sports fields to make it truly massive. However, it was never going to be easy beating the current world record, which at 2,166 is currently held by the makers of the movie ‘Animal House’, and in a muddy field, the project was problematic. “It was just so annoying, we’d booked the Guinness records guy 6 months earlier and we were so prepared” Immy explained, “but don’t worry the toga party in Tru is still going to be awesome”.
With the girls’ expectations for the week seemingly untarnished, they assure me, in between cheeky giggles, that any form of bureaucracy would never get in the way of a brilliant RAG week, “arms and rules have been seriously twisted. RAG week will be epic”.
One of the most exciting events, they claim, is going to be Mr. and Mrs. York (held in The Courtyard on Thursday evening). A free event, which has already raised over £600, in the college heat collection buckets. “We had to get over some big obstacles to sort everything out, but trust me this one will be good, check out the college websites for videos of the hustings, they’re really funny!”
As we closed our discussion, we came to the inevitable subject of life after RAG, “It’ll be devastating”, Jo told me, “It’s been our whole life for the last year, and it doesn’t bear thinking about”. Immy was somewhat more reserved, “I’m just going to want to sleep until RAG week next year, it’s been brilliant, but I’m so tired”.
My interview with the RAG girls was cut short, it was the day before their big week, and they were having to rush to yet another meeting. As they dashed off, with the same high levels of energy they began with, one couldn’t help but be inspired by their allergic enthusiasm for all things RAG.