Students and local residents have criticised the amount of litter left on Jesus Green after hundreds of students gathered there on Sunday (1/5) for a day of partying before the start of exam season.

Various students have expressed their outrage about the aftermath of the first C-Sunday without restrictions since 2019. The traditional day of celebration has faced criticism in the past for the sea of litter and lost items left behind - and this year was no different.

Online student pages such as Camfess saw several complaints posted, with one anonymous student condemning the behaviour of “some of the most rich and privileged students in the country”.

Another said it was “absolutely shocking” that members of a “student populace that appears to care so much about the environment” would leave the park in these conditions, writing that “the student body really showed its true colours”.

It was not just cans, bottles and bags that littered Jesus Green once students had departed. The owners of the Jesus Green Lock House, who are renovating the property for use as a family home, told Varsity that they had witnessed students “freely urinating at the property during C-Sunday, with some even going so far as to shove past us after we told them that it was private property.”

Having poured their “time, energy and savings into renovating this historic property”, the “shocking” behaviour of students came as a “slap in the face”

They added that while they were not opposed to C-Sunday as an event, it is “difficult to put into words how violating it feels” to watch students trespass on and deface their property.

Blaming the “lack of sufficient toilets”, they called on the University to “provide portaloos” at future C-Sunday events.

A group of first-year students were shocked by the state of the Jesus Green when they returned late on Sunday night to recover items that had been lost during the day’s activities.

One of them told Varsity: “’We found the expected and the unexpected, ranging from cans, bottles, cigarette butts, shattered glass and food scraps to condoms, tampons and house keys… the most upsetting part was seeing the broken glass and vomit which we couldn’t remove”.

C-Sunday has been no stranger to criticism in recent years. Last year, Stephen Toope, the vice-chancellor, said the event was a “clear breach of all the public health measures designed to prevent the transmission of Covid-19”, calling it a “slap in the face”.