
If I want an outdoor BSD party similar to what used to happen, how can I make that happen with the SU? This includes energizing entertainment, food and drinks, prizes, and a chance to connect with your peers, dressed in your best tropical, neon, and flashy outfits. The SU is working to make sure all the best parts of BSD are still present at this year’s event.How will the SU make an indoor party at the Den fun? This year’s SU BSD event will be hosted in the Den & Black Lounge with food and drinks, games, lots of prizes and giveaways and as always, the chance to dress up in your brightest, flashiest, and most outrageous tropical clothing.What will the SU’s BSD event look like this year? Student engagement has also continued to diminish in past years, making it extremely difficult to overcome the cost of BSD because of reduced revenues from beverage sales. The university also charges the SU for security both inside and outside the BSD event footprint, resulting in a large majority of expenses spent on these university-imposed costs of security and the use of the parking lot. The SU’s BSD event has gone from a bottom-line cost of $17,000 in 2009 to one of over $98,475.46 in 2018. In past years BSD has been hosted as a large outdoor event with a concert but this is not a possibility anymore due to growing costs.Why can’t BSD look like it did in the past? Declining student interest and attendance and increased costs imposed by the university has led to ever-increasing losses for the SU in the years just prior to the pandemic.

This year’s re-imagined BSD will help lower the financial costs of this event on the SU, while still offering students a fun and engaging BSD event in the Den & Black Lounge.Calgary Police on campus in addition to campus security.Campus security for the event and entire campus on BSD.Instead, the BSD event was run in a parking lot where the SU was charged $16,000 for that space alone. In past years during and after the construction of the Taylor Family Digital Library the SU been prohibited from using the south quad for its BSD event. The event has cost the SU around $100,000 per year in recent years. Prior to the pandemic, BSD costs began to soar with the university downloading tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of costs onto the SU.
BERMUDA SHORTS MAC

The SU cannot justify an annual and ongoing loss for such an event. In the years just prior to the pandemic, the event cost nearly $100,000 to run. At the same time, the university has dramatically increased costs on the SU for this event.

Since 2009, attendance and interest in the SU BSD event has declined. While the SU does not own BSD as an idea or a day, the SU has put together an annual BSD event since the eighties.

The SU knows that students want to celebrate the last day of classes. While BSD attendance has never again reached those same legendary numbers, the spirit is still alive at the Den. What began as an organic, student-led gathering eventually peaked as an annual celebration in the early 2000’s with thousands of students attending an outdoor concert and beer gardens in a former parking lot on the south side of campus. Never heard of Bermuda Shorts Day? BSD is a UCalgary tradition dating back to the 1960s.
BERMUDA SHORTS FREE
Featuring drink specials and special drinks (with alcohol or alcohol-free), free food and snacks, games and prizes, DJs, karaoke, and more. The countdown is on! Get ready to break out your best Bermuda shorts and join us at The Den for a tropical send-off to the semester!Ĭelebrate the last day of classes in the Den! Bermuda Shorts Day party: April 12, from 11 a.m.
