WATERLOO - It was the same weekend, same celebration, same street, but this year's homecoming antics on Ezra Avenue drew a much smaller crowd.
Only a third of the number of people who came out to homecoming weekend in 2018 showed up for this year's unsanctioned street party.
For 2019's homecoming, peak attendance only hit about 4,800 people, compared to 14,000 in 2018.
A noticeable change this year was coordinating the homecoming date with other nearby universities, forcing students who may have hopped from city to city to choose one.
There was also new fencing along properties near Wilfrid Laurier University, and a new noise bylaw.
Still, the Waterloo Regional Police Service says that the number of charges didn't drop by the same proportion as attendance.
This year, 330 charges were laid, about 50 fewer than the year before. A total of 234 liquor license charges were given out to partiers.
The event is not only a drain on police resources, but medical ones as well after a number of people were taken to hospital.
"Most were alcohol abuse-related, we did have one medical call and then one reveler for homecoming had a fall, a minor fall," says Deputy Chief Jim Topham with the Waterloo Region Paramedic Services.
Police also stood on scaffolds throughout the festivities, keeping an eye on the partygoers.
