It's been nearly a week since the end of the official 2023 Freshers' Week and we're just about recovered enough to do some reflecting! We are absolutely bursting with pride at everything we’ve achieved.
Here is just a small summary of what we collectively pulled off:
- Recruited and trained over 100 Freshers’ Week Captains
- Sold 1800 Freshers’ Week Wristbands
- Held over 60 individual SU-led events ranging from inflatables day, pub quizzes, vintage fairs to a city tours.
- Over 50 students keep the film screening of Top Gun running by cycling at the cycle cinema attended by over 300 students
- Through support from Backstage we transformed the Sports Hall into a huge 2,500-capacity Arena and ran five huge Arena Nights
- Held daily mixers which helped form communities of students with similar experiences and backgrounds
- Introduced mixers for departments, bringing students together from their course
- Distributed over 2000 FW T-shirts through wristband and individual sales
- Got arty with workshops, open mic sessions, comedy, murder mystery and more at the Edge
- Had over 150 groups take part in Sports Day & SU Groups Day across campus
- Signed up over 4,000 members of sports, societies and volunteering groups since the start of September
- Held over 60 'Give it a Go' events led by student groups
- Had 50 external companies attend the Freshers’ Fair which spread across the Sports Hall and Chancellors Green for the busiest one yet
- Our amazing Captains packed and distributed 4,000 bedroom bags
- Held our first Bingo Lingo event with 700 students taking part
- Ran a PG-only timetable of events including a cheese & wine night, a pub tour, huge Bollywood night and visits to local attractions and Bristol Habourside!
- Handed out thousands of slices of Domino’s pizza at the Freshers’ Fair and on moving in weekend
- Hundreds of horns were honked on arrivals weekend with encouragement from our FW Captains
- Sold over 500 items of vintage clothing over the week
- Held 21 Peer Mentor Welcome Events with different departments across the University
- Spoke at 15 UniLife Talks
- Hundreds of students bounced their way through inflatables day in the Sports Hall
- Launched our Academic Rep, Hall Rep and other elections to give students the chance to make a stand!
- Advertised over 100 job vacancies throughout September
As we take a look back at this unforgettable week, we just wanted to take a moment to express our gratitude to everyone who played a crucial role in making FW23 such a success. We wanted to start by extending our thanks to our incredible students – the true champions of Freshers’ Week! We had over 100 students take on the role of Freshers’ Week Captains, as well as countless groups who led 'Give it a Go sessions', held various events on and off campus, performed on our big stage as well as took part in our fairs.
We had the most professional technical support from student group Backstage who turned a basic Sports Hall into an unbelievable Arena, we were also able to relive it all the next day with coverage from our amazing Media groups. As always we were blown away by the talent of our groups with some amazing performances from the Bath Jets, the Indian Dance Society and so many more- this list would become endless if we tried to name everyone! We really appreciate all the hard work and dedication that goes into Freshers' Week and it is the student's involvement that truly makes Freshers’ Week authentically student-led, and we couldn’t be prouder.
A special shoutout also has to go to our three incredible Freshers’ Week Event Managers (more commonly known as the FWEMS!) – Matisse, Syed and Millie. All three dedicated their entire summer to ensuring that Freshers’ Week was nothing short of incredible and their hard work, dedication and passion to creating memorable experiences truly paid off!
Finally, we wanted to say a huge thank you to all the SU staff who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure everything came together to showcase the very best of what the SU has to offer. This has included working some very long days and nights, but seeing students enjoying FW23 and watching them make connections that will shape their future paths has made every second worth it.
A massive thank you again to everyone has who has been involved in Freshers’ Week 2023 – we can’t wait to do it all over again next year!