Homecoming on Varick Street was a fun and exciting time for UC students during the Homecoming Pub Crawl celebration on Saturday, Oct. 19. This was the best chance for students to enjoy a night out while on a budget. 

Many students attended the event, socialized with their peers and drank with friends. The event cost $5 and included a shuttle service to and from the local bars as well as a wristband with $3 off coupons on drink purchases at select bars. 

Students could get their wristband at 9 p.m. and use the shuttle service until 1 a.m. The shuttle made trips every 30 minutes for students to travel from Strebel Student Center to the bars. They could hang out in the Pioneer Pub and enjoy music and a few drinks while waiting. 

Some bars were more popular than others. The Celtic Harp had a few drink specials and seemed to remain very busy for most of the night with a line about 70-feet long. This always seems to be the preferred choice of college students. 

Nail Creek Pub was running a “UC-OB” drink special for the occasion that consisted of a blue colored vodka drink and orange Red Bull with Gatorade. They had music in their outside patio and were entertaining a large crowd for most of the night. 

O’Donnel’s Pub hosted a small gathering but it didn’t seem to be the interest of students. There was a bartender there celebrating his last week at O’Donnels who socialized and gave out drinks. They have a patio with outside music and during the summer they open their outside Tiki bar. 

Lukins was busy with a full bar and restaurant. The restaurant bar hosted a live band that students seemed to love and remain there for most of the night. The Yankees game on the overhead televisions seemed to be a great activity as well. 

The recently debuted Irish Cultural Center, just off of Varick Street, was popular and hosted its first wedding the same night. The ground floor is home to Five Points Public House, an elegant Irish pub that serves everything from Guinness to mixed drinks. The entire bar was custom built in Ireland and flown over to Utica and is certainly worth paying a visit to check out. 

Derek Franco, a freshman psychology major, attended the pub crawl and thoroughly enjoyed the event. His favorite bar is actually Five Points but enjoys Nail Creek as well.

“I came from the tailgate event and have been celebrating Homecoming most of the day, it’s just a great time to show a little school pride and enjoy yourself with friends,” he said.