The Galleon - Portsmouth's Official Student Newspaper

On Tuesday the 23rd November, something crazy happened.

About three weeks beforehand, the Psychology Society committee started advertising that the next social would be a trip to Playzone. This trip has happened a couple of times before and always been enjoyed, so it was decided that it would be run again. Playzone suggested that if over 200 people came, entry would be free, so it was agreed that everything should be done to reach that target. Every psychology student was informed of the event via Facebook and informed of the challenge to bring over 200 people. Mountaineering and climbing and the Equestrian club were also invited along too in an attempt to boost numbers.

About two days before the Facebook event had around 300 plus people on it, but we thought “well 120 people bought wristbands for our pub crawl but only half of that seemed to be there on the night, so we may not even be at 200 yet.” On the day of the event, by the time we left our houses to head to the train station, 520 people had said they were going to attend. “There’s no way that many people are going to come” we said, “and if they do, Playzone asked us to get as many as we could, so they’ll have to sort out some sort of rotation for people if it’s too many”.

The train to Cosham was rammed – what the regular commuters must have thought – and after the short walk from the station to Playzone we discovered the queue extended the entire length of the building and more. And people were still turning up. We went and spoke with Playzone and they said they had 200 wristbands ready, with another 200 to hand.

In the end 586 students were in Playzone at once and it was definitely crazy. The reason the venue were willing for so many to be in at once was to prove they could fit that many in and still evacuate them in a reasonable time, so they organised a fire alarm and evacuated the 600 people in under 6 minutes.  Other than that everyone enjoyed themselves – the death slide, climbing up and down everything, drinks upstairs in the cafe and waiting rooms, and so on.

So, if you want to have a good time in Playzone, you can always try and get 586 people there at once!