UC Davis is not traditionally known for being a big party school, and is rarely in the news for things getting out of control with California college students in and around campus. However over the past few years their annual university open house called Picnic Day got a bit chaotic. Picnic Day has been going on at UC Davis for 96 years, but after major increases in violence and arrests this year, it may be the end of the event. This year had 33 arrests, which was over double what was seen in the past couple years, and the event required a lot more police to handle the crowds. When looking deeper into what is causing the UC Davis Picnic Day chaos, you find that it is occurring with California college students in downtown. The Davis Police Department sees this day as having two separate events, in that there are on-campus activities where fun and peaceful events occur, and there is the partying at bars downtown and other house parties.
Many students start drinking very early for the UC Davis Picnic day, starting as early as 5am or in some cases staying up all night until the bars open the next day. Saturday morning many bars in downtown UC Davis open early at 6am, with students lining up before the doors even open. There is also a reason why many line up at bars like the Davis Graduate, because the bar sold a portion of beers for only $1. In fact they sold the first thousand beers for $1 in roughly 30 minutes after opening at 6am that Saturday morning. There were fights, incidents of groped women, an injured police officer, and even reports of thrown furniture. UC Davis has urged downtown bars to not give these crazy discounts to students on this day as it helps lead to more chaos. Officials at UC Davis plan to meet with bar owners downtown to see if they can improve conditions so the event can continue to take place. However this will not stop UC Davis students from partying at their house, or walking around with hard alcohol in their Camelbaks drinking it as they walk around town.
