Two blocks. Six thousand revellers. Fifty-four arrests.
That's how they measure success in Kingston on the morning after the street party that takes place during homecoming at Queen's University each year.
"It wasn't a riot, it was great," said George Hood, a former top administrator at the university who helped organize a group of some 270 volunteers to work into the wee hours this weekend keeping a lid on the drunken festivities on Aberdeen Street - a road lined with student houses that has become a flashpoint in recent years of town-gown tensions. Two years ago, it was also the gathering spot for an out-of-control crowd that pelted police with beer bottles, overturned a car and set it on fire.
Mr. Hood, a Queen's alumnus and Kingston resident, was there that night in his former post at the university. "I saw the whole thing from start to finish," he remembered.
It was that experience that led him and others in the community to decide that something had to be done. For 12 hours on Saturday and early Sunday morning, Mr. Hood, worked with other alumni, professors and about 150 students, to hand out water and plastic cups in the hopes of keeping drinking in check and the beer bottles off the street. "We took the edge off things," he said Sunday.
If their approach had failed, police from as far away as Toronto were on hand, watching the streets on surveillance cameras and ready to move in.
"I personally would consider this year a success because no one was seriously hurt," Staff Sergeant Helene Corcoran of the Kingston Police said. "The property damage was kept to a minimum. The only bad thing was we had 54 people in our cells, which is ridiculous. And it is very expensive."
Most of the arrests were for public intoxication, she said, although one charge of assaulting a police officer was laid. Those charged were kept overnight in Kingston's police headquarters and released around lunchtime Sunday with a fine.
Patrick Deane, Queen's University's vice-principal of academics, stopped short of calling the weekend a success. "It's an improvement from 2005, but I would never call such an event a success."
Last year, the university made a donation of $100,000 to the city in part because of the expense of policing homecoming shenanigans, although no decision has been made about this year. Early estimates this year put the tab to the city $244,000, according to the Kingston Whig-Standard.
Between the local, Toronto and provincial police support, the total cost of tax-paid security was about $467,000, the newspaper said.
Mr. Deane - who watched partygoers on surveillance cameras until 3 a.m. Sunday at a special command centre - said he hopes the strong police presence and community efforts will end the decades-old tradition at Queen's of taking parties to the streets.
"My hope is that it will become boring to the point of ceasing to exist. This is not a desirable thing. We would like to see an end to it."
Given the reputation of the Kingston party phenomenon, that could be a hard goal to reach.
The annual event has become a magnet for young people from the community and beyond, its profile raised even further this year with postings on Facebook, the social networking site, urging attendance. Within hours of the celebrations, clips of crammed streets and students chugging beer were posted on YouTube. One former alumnus even returned this year to make a documentary on the event.
In the days leading up to Saturday night, the local paper was filled with stories on the approaching celebration, including profiles of some of the students who live in the rented houses on the now infamous Aberdeen Street. The one remaining family on the street moved out last year, entrenching even further the street's image as a student enclave.
A note on the Queen's University website from principal Karen Hitchcock warns students that serious misbehaviour "will not be tolerated and that there will be serious consequences for such egregious misconduct."
Mr. Hood, 52, - who admits to attending more than a few parties during his time as a Queen's student - said he does not believe street gatherings will ever become a thing of the past. And he argues that the issue of large parties and excessive drinking among young people goes well beyond Kingston.
"This is not a simple problem. This is a complex issue that is being experienced across North America," he said. "In light of that, what transpired last night was a success."
With a report from The Canadian Press