Chug, Chug, Chug with the 100 Club
Downing a ‘beer bong’ is a rite of passage for many Aussies, but it’s the infamous travel legend of the 100 Club that takes things to a revolting – yet compelling - new height. Think sculling a stranger’s vomit mixed with piss and you get this annual event right before Oktoberfest kicks off in Munich, Germany each year.
Unsurprisingly, it’s Aussie and Kiwi backpackers who take part in this glorified vom-fest. The rules appear simple: 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes. To enter, just turn up on the day with a bucket, stool, beer, shot glass and no underwear. Past winners act as judges, deciding who downs what foul concoction and who is deemed out of contention. The ‘winner’ is last man, or possibly woman, who has managed to stay conscious and kept the poisons down best.
To kick off, participants are given a taste of what’s to come. Some of the better ingredients entrants and their beer is doused with include flour, baked beans, phlegm, tomato sauce and chili powder. But it’s the other contents on display that really make the stomach churn: tins of dog and cat food mixed with jars of curry, raw eggs, mouldy cheese, fish and tinned ravioli. But even these are better than the alternative: vomit and urine.
Puking is inevitable and when it happens that person is out, unless undetected by the judges. But sometimes the judges are lenient and may provide a second chance – if you down a funnel filled with another’s spew. If the lucky contestant can keep that down they can remain seated and in the running for the win. The smell is putrid.
In a past competition the first person eliminated purposely spewed all over the contestant to his left before declaring “because I love you” and walking away from the circle. There’s also a ‘no underwear’ rule which has proved painful (and bloody) for unsuspecting victims when jocks are forcefully ripped off in major wedgie fashion in front of wincing onlookers.
As the 100 mark approaches and the funnels – and spectator throats - clog up with grotesque additions, the final group somehow manages to control their nausea, unlike the rest. How their stomachs avoided the inevitable nausea is beyond belief.
So what is the prize for this strange and glorified mess? Well it’s simple and in line with the heinous competition. The winners (winners?) have their revenge on the judges, forcing them to chug feral beer-based concoctions including vomit, urine, and if historic rumors are true, faeces and semen too (however these last two are unconfirmed and a touchy subject among contestants).
The majority of entrants into 100 Club are in the final stages of Van Tour, an annual antipodean journey which has been running for at least 20 years. Because of its unofficial heritage, it’s not known exactly when Van Tour started and the same can be said for 100 Club. What is certain is that somewhere along the way this contest evolved and continued annually ever since.
The 100 Club has managed to keep a fairly low profile, but the growing popularity and German media interest has seen this side of Aussie drinking culture beamed into living rooms. Is this apparent harmless fun something to be proud of?
