Here’s what happened at the Union re-opening on Friday

“The circus was awesome but I reckon the free cocktails nick it.”

Those words from Hari Sood, a Maths and Philosophy fresher perfectly sum up the circus-themed event held at the new Student Union building on Friday evening.

Any expectations we had were definitely exceeded by this latest step in the rebrand of what used to be known as UBU.

Arriving, the queue to the Union was round the block for perhaps the first time ever.

After a solid 15 minutes of clowning around and waiting we were allowed inside. There were supposed to be free drinks on arrival but they were nowhere to be seen – the first magic act of the night? We were however greeted by two women on stilts which was pretty exciting. The bar beckoned.

The Balloon Bar was packed but service was pretty speedy and the cocktails for the night were on 2 for 1 and had circus-themed names: High Wire and Circus Cruise.

Having half drunk them, the free booze magically appeared – a cocktail containing vodka and something pink. It tasted a bit like cough medicine but had enough booze in to keep most of us happy.

Drink

At half nine, the circus started and unbelievably it was really rather good. Though we did hear one person saying that the Great Ballzini lived up to his name.

Ballsy

Ultimately, free booze is still the way to our hearts – old habits die hard – so if you weren’t there you definitely missed out on a good evening of free drinks and magic.

Don’t pretend you don’t love the circus. Solid 8/10 for the Union.