Students descended on Jesus Green yesterday to celebrate Caesarian Sunday, grabbing national headlines after a man was set on fire.

Groups congregated on the lawn from around lunchtime to enjoy the weather, with many setting up small barbecues, drinking, and playing football.

Despite an increased police presence from previous years, and condemnation of the annual tradition as “extremely unpleasant” by Clare College, the day passed largely without incident.

However, an air ambulance was called at around 3pm to treat a student who police told Varsity had passed out from drinking, and a student of Sidney Sussex College who had suffered burns to his arm as a result of a drinking society initiation was taken away in an ambulance.

Reports said that a male first year had been set on fire after dressing up in cotton wool as part of an initiation ceremony for a drinking society. Two other students were treated, following their attempts to pull the cotton wool off the inflamed student, burning their hands in the process.

Community Support Officers present spoke of the pleasant atmosphere around the Green, and said that they did not anticipate any trouble, given the calm atmosphere of recent years.

There was, as expected, no reprise of the wrestling match between the Jesus and Girton drinking societies, after the former of whom the event takes its name.

Caesarian Sunday has been a student tradition for more than eighty years, allegedly dating back to the theft of a bottle of Pimm’s belonging to a Caesarian, Jesus College’s male drinking society, by a Green Giant, its equivalent at Girton.

In recent years, the University has taken an increasingly strong stance against the festivities, issuing warnings in each of the last three years for students to stay away.

As in previous years, the Daily Mail were present at the event, reporting that some students were left “unable to stand”, and were seen “stripping off” as the afternoon wore on. The Mail’s report also featured quotes from the fictional ‘Marcus Atherton’, of Porter’s Log - a Cambridge satirical website - fame, who claimed to be “shocked and disgusted” by the day’s events.

An album of some of the photos Varsity took can be found here.