It’s Borg time: Unofficial takes over Charleston

Rob Le Cates

The 2023 Unofficial house crawl started at 9 a.m., with the first party going until noon, then the second from noon to 2 p.m., then the final house party from 2 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Cam'ron Hardy, News Editor

The annual Unofficial event took place Saturday morning and entailed a broken porch, roof climbing, one ambulance call, a house ending the party almost two hours earlier than planned and many Borgs.

Unofficial is hosted every year at the University of Illinois and Eastern. Meant to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in a “house crawl” fashion, the psuedoholiday is something many students look forward to every Spring. A Borg is a “blackout rage galloon” and began as a TikTok trend. Borgs are a partially emptied gallon jug of water with the desired amount of alcohol added with any added flavoring to the water like Kool-aid.

There are parties set up all day long, but typically start 9 a.m. and end in the late evening or night.

People go from house to house enjoying music and drinks.

For the official parties, there were three official houses as a part of the house crawl before moving to Ike’s for the DJ after party.

One of the attendees, Ian, said he was having a good time at the event and looked forward to partying the rest of the night.

Ian’s friend, Emma said that she really enjoyed Unofficial as well.

“It’s great, I want to stay, I love it here,” Emma said.

She said that she looked forward to hanging out with her friends later.

Adriana and Onika also attended the parties. They said that they were partying since 10 a.m. and planned on partying until everything was shut down.

Adriana said she really enjoyed the environment and that everyone at the event was really “chill.”

Theo, another attendee, gave their thoughts about Unofficial and how unique it was.

An older woman joins in the festivities of Unofficial getting bead necklaces draped over her and being bombarded for pictures at the second Unofficial party house Saturday morning. (Rob Le Cates)

“it’s really interesting to watch a lot of Eastern come together and celebrate this one holiday,” Theo said.

They said it was their first Unofficial event but did not plan on going to another one.

“I feel like one is [enough], one-and-done,” Theo said.

They did not like the amount of walking that they had to do to get from house to house.

They hope that everyone is safe and to watch out for their friends

Partygoers walk through and around empty alcohol cans, cups, and 24-packs at the third Unofficial party house Saturday afternoon. The party was canceled after there was damage to the property and an individual left in an ambulance. (Rob Le Cates)

A group of friends also attended Unofficial together.

One of the members, Brandon, said they were there to carry on the tradition.

Another member, Josh, came down from Manteno, Ill., to celebrate with his friends.

“I know this is like the biggest day of the year, so I’m kind of expecting big shit to go down, you know. People breaking tables [and] the cops, I don’t know. I’m not [going to] be involved in that, but I want to witness it.”

A member of the Charleston Police Department talks to partygoers after the police responded to an unresponsive individual who was then taken in an ambulance at the third Unofficial house party. (Rob Le Cates)

Police officers remained in the area to watch out for civilians and to make sure everything was okay.

One person was taken away from the party in the back of an ambulance due to a call of being unconscious and potentially not breathing at the time of the 9-1-1 call.

One officer told a partygoer, “That’s an open container on a public sidewalk, take 10 people with you and move along.”

Another attendee, Dawson, said he was having a lot of fun and was partying before the actual parties started.

He also wanted people to be safe knowing that there are some reckless people that come out to Unofficial.

 

Cam’ron Hardy can be reached at 581-2812 or at dennewsdesk@gmail.com.