Homecoming parties ramp up Saturday night

London, Ont. -

It was a slower start than what is typically seen during Western’s Homecoming weekend, but once the weather and police presence cleared, that seemed to change.

Video has surfaced on social media showing hundreds of students gathered on Huron St. without masks or physical distancing.

"The cops did a really good job during the day, especially on Broughdale," said second year student, Nick Jakubiak. "But once the sun started setting, cops went home, I don’t know what happened but that’s when it started going crazy. You can stop Broughdale but you can’t stop every single street."

Typically, it’s Broughdale that sees a large turnout of students, but with a heavy police presence there all day, party-seekers migrated to the next street over where word got out that there was a backyard party happening.

"When they shut the party down, there were so many people that all went onto the street and it caused what would normally be happening on Broughdale to happen on Huron," said Max, a content creator for The Canadian Boys.

Video has surfaced on social media showing hundreds of students gathered on Huron St. without masks or physical distancing on Saturday September 26, 2021 (Source: Snapchat)

In the videos shared, students can be seen crowd surfing on pieces of wood, back flipping off of telephone poles and jumping on fold-up tables.

The Middlesex-London Health Unit, London Police Service and Western University had urged students not to attend large gatherings this weekend.

The impact the event has had on COVID-19 case numbers and police ticket handouts are unknown at this time.