With May Bumps starting on Wednesday, the clash of timings between the college rowing showpiece and Midsummer Fair has made national press, with The Times and the Daily Mail reporting on safety fears.

While the Fair is not expected to impact the Bumps course itself – which runs from Baitsbite lock to where the Pike & Eel pub was located in Chesterton – the issue concerning Bumps lies in students’ ability to travel to and from their boathouses safely. Clubs with boat houses close to the Common - namely Christ’s, Lady Margaret, Queens’, Magdalene, Peterhouse, Caius and Murray Edwards – are particularly at risk, and incidents of spitting and 10mm nuts being thrown towards boats have been reported in the past.

Several local pubs and shops near to the Common, including the Fort St George, the Boathouse and the Co-Op, will be shut throughout the Fair - anticipating a rise in antisocial behaviour that has come to be associated with it.

“The Captain’s meeting pre-Bumps was described as having ‘lots of anxiety’”

In response to colleges’ concern, CUCBC – the college rowing authority – drafted a rule unique to these Bumps that allows colleges to face no penalty for removing their crews from the third and fourth days of the event, should they feel that they cannot guarantee the safety of their crews.

Usually, if a crew does not race for more than 1 day, they are placed in the penultimate division for the next year - undoing years, or even decades of effort. This will not occur this year.

Any rule change that is seen to disrupt the near-200 year tradition of Bumps is likely to face some opposition. However, CUCBC faces the incredibly tough challenge of balancing the competition’s legitimacy with the safety of students, and this rule change strikes a delicate but hopefully successful balance.

The captains' pre-Bumps meeting was described by one boat club captain as involving “lots of anxiety” but “not much opposition” to the rule change. The captain also described the change as “a fair rule which maintained the integrity of the event whilst giving clubs the room to make tough decisions if they need to”.

They stated that CUCBC “have done a great job given the circumstances” and through liaison with the police, the University sports service and the local Safety Advisory Group, the event will hopefully pass without much issue. Although historic clashes with Midsummer Fair have not contributed directly to any issues, the event has become “rowdier particularly after the pandemic,” and taking safety precautions without risking the cancellation of Bumps appears a reasonable and measured response.

“CUCBC ‘have done a great job given the circumstances’”

However, Friends, Families and Travellers, a charity that works to end discrimination against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people, attacked CUCBC’s policy as “scapegoating and demonising Gypsy and Traveller people” and propagating “harmful stereotypes,” in a statement to The Times. There is great difficulty in managing these tensions, and respect for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller groups coming to Midsummer Fair is essential.

In light of student-raised concerns, though, it is hard to argue that CUCBC’s policy is an overreaction. It allows for colleges to make their own decisions and also to adapt to what happens during the week. Colleges only need to make their decisions on whether to race clear later on in the week and this means that, should potential concerns not materialise, Bumps is able to proceed as it usually would.

CUCBC’s loyalty is to students and to facilitate participation in one of Cambridge’s most famous traditions. This decision recognises the precariousness of the situation but also its unknowns; not leaping to conclusions before the extent of impact is clear. To have not made such a decision – as difficult as it must have been to come to –   could have risked rowers’ safety, and safety surely must come before annything else.