Edmonton college students lined up at West Edmonton Mall’s Waterpark to make waves at Splash and Bash on March 5th. NAITSA, SAMU (Student’s Association of MacEwan University), UASU (University of Alberta Student Union) and Sea Change Brewing pooled together for the event in celebration of another semester. While at the event, students sampled beer and hit West Edmonton Mall’s most daring slides and wave pool.
Entrance for students cost $10 and for non-students, $15.
“Interacting with students from other post-secondaries in the city was what I liked most about the event. You relate with each other on the stress that can come with school sometimes. So being at a place where you’re active and you can socialize goes hand-in-hand perfectly,” said Adel Ahmed, NAIT student.
Sea Change Brewing, an artist owned craft brewery guided by creativity and dreaming big, crashed the party to launch their newest beer, a collaboration with Edmonton meme Instagram, Yego.death. During “sample hour,” attendees could try six of Sea Change’s top sellers, including The Wolf, Prairie Fairy, Death Wave, Man Crush and Yego.Death.
Waiting in line at the beer tents, though, fans couldn’t help but speculate over yego.death’s next Instagram post.
Yego.death is an Instagram account that went viral last summer in 2021 for its self-deprecating posts about life in Edmonton. In response, followers often share their experiences or poke jokes, whether about the city’s LRT or Talus Dome (the silver balls southeast of Quesnell bridge), for example. The relationship between beer-maker and meme-r came to be after yego.death posted an affirmation on Instagram in June 2021 saying “Sea Change will make a beer about me.” The beer’s unique flavor, smoked pineapple and salted lime margarita, encouraged many students to try it at Sea Change’s sample tent.
Fashionably late, the satirist shared the next day that the waterpark’s chlorine is holy water and that it rids yego, the account user, of any warts. Throughout the bash, Sea Change shouted that students or “partyers” could find the host and post a picture on Instagram to win free merchandise.
Whether they attended for yego.death or the slides, students remarked that the event was a much-needed break from homework.
“It was a good opportunity to get out and have a good time. School is starting to get pretty stressful, so it was nice to relax and have some fun with friends,” said Reece Andrews, NAIT student.
(cover photo by NAITSA/Daniel Chamberlin)
