Queen’s University to bring back homecoming

Following a four-year suspension to curb rowdy partying, property damage and injuries, Queen’s University will reinstate its annual homecoming weekend next year.

Queen’s Principal Daniel Woolf announced Tuesday the alumni gathering will be held on two weekends in the fall of 2013, Oct. 4-6 and Oct. 18-20.

The university announced a two-year suspension the event in November 2008 following a raucous September weekend that saw 140 arrests, 700 liquor charges and 23 severely intoxicated people sent to the emergency room as an estimated 8,000 partiers crowded onto Aberdeen Street, a two-block stretch of student housing. The annual event gained notoriety in 2005 after revelers jammed the street in droves, smashing beer bottles and lighting a flipped car on fire. In 2010, Woolf further delayed the return of homecoming by three years.