Postponed UBC snowball fight goes on as planned — just a day later

One day after the annual University of B.C. snowball fight was postponed due to snow, the annual UBC snowball fight took place as scheduled. Snow also factored into the decision to go ahead with the event.

Wednesday’s rescheduling announcement was the source of much snickering globally. On social media and even in publications like The Irish Times and The New York Post, Vancouver spent the day getting dunked on, with many saying the cancellation of a snowball fight during a snowstorm was “so Vancouver” — a typical self-own from one of Canada’s most snow-averse cities.

While it’s true that many Vancouverites struggle with the occasional snowy day, rare as they are, this public dragging was always a bit silly. Classes were cancelled at UBC’s Point Grey campus Wednesday due to the poor weather — it wouldn’t have made much sense to host a snowball fight billed as an “ultimate battle” with no one around. And what sort of student-organized event forces students to attend when even the faculty has capitulated to a day off?

“To make sure we can have the wildest snowball fight possible (and have everyone make it to campus safely), we will be moving the snowball fight to Thursday,” the organizers explained, very reasonably.

Still, somebody out there gave an otherwise anodyne story a very good headline, and I wish I’d thought of it.

Classes resumed Thursday and conditions were perfect for the snowthrowers’ showdown, with blue skies and plenty of white stuff on the ground at the Main Mall between the Sauder and chemistry buildings, where the event took place. At 12:15 p.m., students began lining up on either side of the mall, gathering ammo and, at 12:30 p.m., the melee began.

It was a chaotic scene, as neither side appointed leaders, established objectives or worked together in any sort of tangible way.

As a result, it was difficult to tell who won.

I’d suggest everyone who attended was a winner, but we all know at least one poor soul took a snowball right in the kisser, and somebody else got snow down the back of their shirt, which is the worst thing that can happen to a person.

It wouldn’t have made much sense to host a snowball fight billed as an ‘ultimate battle’ with no one around.”