The line to get into a Kingston bar can be a desolate, hopeless landscape. People shiver in skimpy clothes, overenthusiastic drinkers vomit in the streets, and impatient sneaks try their best to butt in line. As a result, some of the wackiest stories can emerge from the chaotic crowds huddled in front of downtown clubs.

We gathered some of the funniest student stories about standing in line here, both for your enjoyment and as cautionary tales—always watch out for flying fists in the Stage Rage line!

***

“I was lined up for Stage Rage during the winter of 2019. This guy came up to me and my friend and started chatting us up. We thought he might’ve been trying to shoot his shot with us.

The topic soon turned to Juuls and how we’d all been hearing about how bad they are for you—you know, typical Stages line conversation. He got pretty heated about how stupid his friends that used them were, and we nodded along to his rant. We parted ways once we got inside.

About 10 minutes later, I saw him hitting his Juul from across the floor. A few days later, we matched on Tinder and I messaged him something like, “Sick Juul, man” and he unmatched me.

I lost the love of my life that day.”

—Jodie Grieve, ArtSci ’21

“Once at Ale House, I was waiting in the line (more like mosh pit) to get upstairs. My group of friends and I found ourselves in the middle of the crowd of people waiting to do the same.

The pushing and shoving in this group of people led to someone aggressively squishing into my right side hard enough that my shoulder popped out. The bouncer was incredibly surprised, and asked his coworker what to do.

All of my friends started screaming things like, “Let her upstairs, she’s crying,” as I said, “Please, I’m in so much pain!” When he started to let me head upstairs, I made him let my friends come along. The scene I made was big enough that I got myself and my 10 other friends upstairs in no time, which gave me some space to pop my shoulder back in place.

—Sasha Cohen, ArtSci ’22

“A few years back, I gave a bouncer at Ale my fake ID from a guy named Roy, which had been given to me second-hand by another friend. The bouncer looked at it for a really long time in silence. As I braced myself for him to tell me he knew it was fake, he said, ‘Roy […] funny. When me and you, Roy, were doing our Econ assignment this afternoon, Roy, this isn’t what you looked like, Roy!’

As I began to stammer my way through an explanation, he nodded his head and said, “Go in and enjoy yourself, Roy,’ and laughed.”

—Jonny Karr, ArtSci ’20

“While waiting in line to get into Stages, I watched this group of friends hop the barricade to skip in front of everyone else. All of them were able to leap over it with ease except for one girl. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t seem to make it over. She was way too intoxicated, and didn’t seem particularly agile in the first place.

While I wasn’t pleased that these people were cutting in front of me, the perseverance this girl showed in repeatedly trying to hop the gate was impressive.

Taking pity on her, two boys eventually grabbed her arms and hoisted her over the barrier, dropping her safely behind them in line. I couldn’t even be mad, and everyone let the girls through without complaining.”

—Amelia Rankine, ArtSci ’20

“It was the first Stage Rage of Frost Week 2020, and we arrived at 9 p.m. when the club opened. The line was already past the bus shelter, at the Metro parking lot entrance. We got into the line, but people immediately started butting in front of us. We debated whether to do it too, but decided we would be Good Samaritans and stayed where we were.

As more people arrived, the crowd got larger, and people started pushing. Very, very slowly, the bouncers started letting people in. We were waiting in line, laughing and making friends but also slowly having our organs crushed on all sides by the crowd of people surrounding us.

We were halfway down the line to get in, finally beginning to enter the Stages gates, when all of a sudden, all you could hear was the roaring of the crowd as people screamed, ‘WHOA!’ and everyone behind us pushed forward. Slowly, people toppled onto us, pushing us into the gate. The gate then somehow crashed over onto the ground with us on top of it. As a result, people fell over us, stepped on us, and punched us in the chaos.

Not only did we sustain injuries, but we lost our place in line, too.”

—Jessica Gregoire, ArtSci ’21