“The cantus is the number-one event to close the Intro”, says Tim Beishuizen of the Central Intro Committee. “And since it’s a phenomenon that students still talk about years later, we didn’t want to take it away from first-year students – including underage ones.” Tim wants every Intro-goer to experience the feeling of solidarity that emerges at cantuses, and the organization felt alcohol-free beer to be the best solution. The beer won’t be provided by a Dutch beer company, since none of them are equipped to brew that much alcohol-free beer: at a cantus, students easily drink five thousand liters of beer. The Intro Committee is now talking to Czech brewery Konrad.

The 2,600 Intro participants (2,200 freshmen and 400 ‘moms and dads’) will be wearing wristbands to identify who are eighteen and who aren’t. Alcohol may be served after 6PM on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. On Wednesday, when the study associations present themselves, drafts can be ordered from the afternoon onward.

Tim Beishuizen says the decision has been receiving positive reactions mostly. “People prefer the cantus to continue, and we had to tackle the new legislation somehow anyway.”