Senior Tutors at several colleges have warned students against attending ‘Caesarian Sunday’, the infamous drinking event due to occur this Sunday.

The event, which is traditionally held on the Sunday of the May Bank Holiday weekend, involves a diverse array of activities but principally revolves around drinking on Jesus Green for an entire afternoon. It is a major event for many of the student drinking societies, and has previously seen rowdy behaviour from groups of students.

An e-mail was sent out to students at St John’s College from the Dean and Senior Tutor on Tuesday this week urging students in the college not to attend the event this year. It described the tradition as “an offensive and damaging practice” that involves “drunken and anti-social conduct”.

The e-mail claimed: “The resultant publicity continues to do serious damage to the reputation of the collegiate university. It is also directly damaging to the reputations of the individuals photographed by the press photographers who now make a point of attending the event.”

Students celebrate Caesarian Sunday

It warned that “participation in events conducted by drinking societies, or the like, should lead to exclusion from College accommodation or a ban on attending the College May Ball.”

It also featured a statement from the Cambridge Constabulary that a “police presence will ensure that any activities and behaviour on Jesus Green are peaceful, lawful and have no adverse effect on others using or passing through.

“Where behaviour is identified as anti-social or unlawful there will be a swift response to resolve such incidents”.

The e-mail advised that members of the college “find a more fruitful way to enjoy the weekend.”

Over the last few years national newspapers, particularly the Daily Mail, have reported on the day’s habitual debauchery. As a result the University and colleges are often very keen to dissuade their students from taking part.

An e-mail was also sent from the Senior Tutor of Wolfson College to its students, in the preamble of which she said that all Senior Tutors had been asked to circulate it. It warned of a “swift response” to any “anti-social or unlawful behaviour” from both the College’s disciplinary procedure, but also the police.”

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It added: “Students are urged to follow the advice of their tutors, and if they choose to attend, then they should act and behave responsibly, and tidy up after themselves when they leave.”

Last year an air ambulance was called in response to someone who had passed out from drinking. This was accompanied by an individual suffering third degree burns as a result of a cotton wool sheep costume he was wearing catching fire. Reports said the latter individual had been set on fire during a drinking society initiation.

The event traditionally centred around a fight between the male drinking societies of Jesus, the Caesarians, and Girton, the Green Giants. Dating back over 80 years, it allegedly has its origins in the theft of a bottle of Pimm’s belonging to a Caesarian by a Green Giant.

Last year, satirical student website The Porter’s Log rang the Daily Mail to provide comments on the day’s events from the fictional Marcus Atherton, who is one of the site’s stock characters. Comments in which Atherton described the bacchanalia as “carnage” and said that there was “nudity, people throwing beer and bottles at each other, even people urinating on each other” later appeared in the paper.