Beer Snake - How Many Cups Are In A Pint

A beer snake, super snake, or cup snake is the stacking of numerous plastic beer cups to form a "snake." Beer snakes are most commonly found at sporting events that are played out over many hours, such as cricket. Some snakes have been reported in the media as being up to 175 m long. They are typically formed during breaks in play: for example, when the fourth Test of the Pakistani cricket team in England in 2006 tour at The Oval was halted after ball tampering allegations, a large beer snake was constructed in the OCS stand.

Materials

A beer snake is made with a large number of empty plastic beer cups, usually those issued by the bars on site at the stadium. Many sports stadiums do not allow glasses for safety reasons, and use plastic cups for serving beer. The plastic cups, once empty, provide the flexible building blocks for constructing the beer snake.

Origins

The first recorded beer snake occurred on January 3, 2001 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, NSW, Australia. A newspaper article in the Sydney Morning Herald cited Michael Gray as "The Snake Charmer" and architect of the social phenomenon.

Procedure

As such a large number of cups are needed, gathering normally occurs in large groups of people. The cups are simply stacked within each other until they form a tube or 'snake'. Once the snake has reached the desired length it is held skyward to 'dance' as if being charmed. Snake length is often restricted by the width of the bay of seats as anything longer will protrude into the aisle. One solution to this is to team up with other groups and link your snakes together. One of the biggest challenges is trying to keep it in one piece.

Security staff at many sporting venues frown on such behaviour, and will often attempt to confiscate the empty cups from people building a beer snake. This is in part due to the dangers of such structures in crowded places, and also due to the fact that the component cups are often not completely empty and will spill stale beer on spectators.

As a result of several minor injuries that occurred when a beer snake collapsed during a regular season Canadian Football League game, the Winnipeg Football Club banned the creation of beer snakes during Winnipeg Blue Bombers football games.

Notable examples

• January 20, 2013: It is believed that the longest ever beer snake, aka beer anaconda, was created during a two-hour rain delay at an Australia versus Sri Lanka one-day cricket match in Sydney, Australia. The snake was reported to have spanned the width of the SCG's Victor Trumper Stand. Although the beer snake was not accurately measured, it is believed to have been between 100 and 175 metres long, beating the previous record held at the WACA Ground, Perth, Australia in 2007.