If you managed to swing by the hooplah that happened by the steps earlier this evening, perhaps you were welcomed by Weezer’s Pinkerton album blaring from a laptop while 15 or so students were dancing under the tented sheets. Perhaps you were also offered a loaf of bread by some guy in a Mardi Gras mask, waving it in the air like a glowstick at a 90’s dance party. Or maybe you came by earlier, when a bottle of confetti was released into the air like champagne at a new year’s celebration.

For those who missed all the fuss, around 11 PM a bunch of kids gathered by the steps for “Fort Nite,” where they revisted childhood and created a party out of linens and other miscellaneous materials. A little bit after 1 AM however, Columbia security showed up to shut the show down, claiming that the sheets were creating an obstruction, the lights were a fire hazard, and that students should have alerted the university before throwing the event.

“People sit and smoke hookah on the lawn, so why can’t we do this? What the heck?” commented one participant. Students tried to save the party by telling security that the event was all about using public space as a place where the community could take part. “Yeah, but this is a private space,” one of the two security guards reminded them. On a side note, Bwog also noticed that one of the sheets being used had “BLIGH…” painted in red in large red letters (the sheet wasn’t completely unrolled) though the students involved claim that the event was independent from any expansion-related student groups.

Anyway, sheets or no sheets, the students decided to keep the party going a little longer before eventually retiring the event. More power to you, guys. More power to you.

MIP

More photos after the jump.