Annual S.L.U.T draws large crowds

At Kells an orgy of twenty-somethings converge on the dance floor like some wild version of a junior prom dance. In the background two girls dressed as buckeye hunters arrive and a rowdy group starts a pizza fight. The drunks roar around us as people continue to pour in. Offically its nuts.

This past Saturday was the 11^th annual Sparhawk Liquid Urban Tour pub crawl and S.L.U.T (as it is affectionately called) is one of the most notorious-and completely unadvertised- events in Allston, Mass. With an atmosphere of an intense mating ritual, the Sparhawk pub crawl boasts of a thousand participants all rocking the rainy weather with straw hats, grass skirts and shell bras.

To those that have never experienced such drunken debautury, a normal pub crawl consists of one or more persons taking a tour of bars in a single night, often consuming one drink for each destination. The Sparhawk takes it one further by introducing a full itinerary of bars from 2-8p.m with DJs, balloon artists and free pizza at Kells. Jim Lawler says of this years event, “There’s always a theme. [This year] its like Brady Bunch Hawaii."

The people behind Sparhawk Liquid Urban Tour are seven friends who named the crawl after their Sparhawk Street apartment building they shared after college. David Smith-Hause says of their history, “It all started off as all friends and kept growing."

In fact this year, the pub crawl boasts one thousand participants. Their pub crawl success is all pre-internet world of mouth. The majority of participants are friends of friends of the original crew, often resulting in a hilarious serendipity of random meet-ups.

Chris Eicher, one of the crowd at Silhouette says “Every year I have a crazy story from the pub crawl. This year I met up with this kid, I haven’t seen him since high school. Last year I hung out with a different high school friend and her mom.”

Dave Smith-Hause, one of the participants says“One rule is if you meet your future wife or husband at pub crawl you have to give Kevin a bottle of Wild Turkey. He’s gotten eight bottles so far."

Despite numerous interactions with drunk folk, I don't find a love connection. Instead I get a couple rounds of free beer from perfect strangers. In the slew of random interviews one guy snatches my pad and pen away and starts reading my observations about the pub crawl.

“What does that mean?” he asks pointing to my chicken scratch. “I have no idea, I’m drunk.” I say and he writes down my quote on the piece of paper with a laugh. “That’s got to go in the article” he says handing the pad of paper back to me and he’s right, because that really sums up the night; everyone’s night at the Sparhawk pub crawl.