In the largest student city of Belgium, the academic year usually starts with a big event: the Student Kick-Off. This year, it was last wednesday, on September 26th 2012, at St-Pietersplein. This welcome party for students by students is already in its 7th edition and has become the biggest student event in Flanders. This Student Kick-Off is the result of an intense cooperation between the students of UGent (and their unions), the City of Ghent and all the higher education institutions in Ghent.

Last year, 36.000 people attended the party hosting The Vengaboys under a great sun. By the way, since 2011, the entrance is set to 1€ which is entirely given to humanitarian funds. Every year numerous activities are organized on site. Students can also visit a huge info village with interactive and original stands of the Ghent Student Unions, the higher education institutions, the City of Ghent and associations of Ghent... Before the event, I helped building the stage and other handyworks with other students. All in all, there were 900 students involved in the Student Kick-Off! I thought it was a good opportunity to meet some locals, outside of the ESN bubble. In exchange of our good work, we got lunch & drinks; as well as two beer-vouchers per hour worked, to be exchanged during the event.

The party opened around noon and the first concert started a bit later. People were getting in by only one entrance, which was overwhelmed quite fast, making us queueing for some time! We enjoyed a few beers, listening to the pop folk of Absynthe Minded and getting all crazy on the Balkan Hip-Hop tracks by Merdan Taplak. Unfortunately, the DJ tent (sponsored by Monster) was full so no one could get in. In the meantime, it started to rain :/
[null, null, {"document_url": "http://experienceetc.blogspot.com/2012/09/student-kick-off.html", "unformatted_src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OenpAFg2OdU/UGMHVXeuoyI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/xlgskiSeOO4/s320/student+kickoff1.jpg", "src": "http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OenpAFg2OdU/UGMHVXeuoyI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/xlgskiSeOO4/s320/student+kickoff1.jpg", "formatted_filename": "student kickoff", "rendered_width": 228, "rendered_height": 320}, null, {"document_url": "http://experienceetc.blogspot.com/2012/09/student-kick-off.html", "unformatted_src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5rjyoNh7PcU/UGMKobyS7qI/AAAAAAAAA7s/L98kY3cJcpE/s320/IMAG0010.jpg", "src": "http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5rjyoNh7PcU/UGMKobyS7qI/AAAAAAAAA7s/L98kY3cJcpE/s320/IMAG0010.jpg", "formatted_filename": "IMAG", "rendered_width": 320, "rendered_height": 191}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null]