There were long lines of students waiting up to an hour for entrance into the crowded downtown Limelight Entertainment venue.
Many students held bottles that would later be thrown under cars while waiting for entry. Loud yelling, laughing and people goofing off with friends created an atmosphere fitting of a college party.
“This is the party of the year,” the event’s Facebook page promised.
That was the anthem for the “Life Is Turnt” party held Saturday night at 201 Woodland St. Roughly 1,500 students from universities around Middle Tennessee were crammed into one space, according to the event’s Facebook page.
It was sometime after this party a female Belmont student believes she may have been drugged and sexually assaulted early Sunday morning at a separate residence, according to a Campus Security alert sent out Tuesday.
The student reported to Metro Nashville Police she was at the party when she lost consciousness, Metro Police Public Affairs Manager Don Aaron said.
The student reported she was taken against her will to another residence off-campus, according to the Campus Security email.
“At the residence, the female student believes she may have been sexually assaulted—potentially by another student who was present—while under the influence of the aforementioned drugs,” the email read.
The event was planned and hosted by Clean Boy Promotions– a company founded by Belmont sophomore Christian Crenshaw. Attempts to reach Crenshaw via social media were unsuccessful. Today hundreds of photos are displayed online on the company’s account, showing students at the heart of the action.
“Due to federal privacy laws, Belmont University does not comment on the status of specific students, the nature of ongoing investigations or judicial processes,” said University Counsel Jason Rogers.
Five students who attended the event reported underage drinking both inside and outside of the venue. Security ejected around 100 underage drinkers, said Limelight’s manager, who refused to give his name.
“It was an 18-plus event, everyone there was carded. If they had a fake ID, it was taken from them,” he said.
Fliers promoting the event were distributed in freshman and sophomore dorms on campus, originally identifying the party as a “Belmont Homecoming” party. It was advertised on the event’s Facebook page that tickets to the event would be sold on campus in the Beaman Student Life Center. General admission tickets were sold for $10.49, with VIP passes going for $20.49, according to the event’s Facebook page.
University counsel issued the company a cease-and-desist order for using Belmont’s name with a non-university sponsored event, said Rogers. After the order was issued, the event description was changed to firmly convey “LIT” was not associated with Belmont.
The event came back under administrative attention, however, when Campus Security issued its alert Tuesday.
Clean Boy Promotions posted the following statement to its Facebook page two hours after campus security sent out its alert.
“We are happy that people came to our event with the intent to have fun and have a great time! But, speaking to the one or two outliers. If you are going to come to any event and do something ridiculous when you leave, don’t come. No one wants you there.
Regardless, we are glad the majority of people had an amazing time. Many people said they felt extremely safe and had hella fun. We hope that next time, we can give you guys an even more awesome and epic experience.”
More information on this story will be published as it becomes available.
This article was written by Sam Cowan, Riley Wallace and Will Hadden. Research and reporting by Celida Salcedo, Melissa Kriz and Ally Pace.