KEY POINTS:
Organisers of the Undie 500 pub crawl this year are hoping to prevent a repeat of last year's event when riots broke out in Dunedin.
The University of Canterbury Engineering Society's (Ensoc) Undie 500 pub crawl will be travelling down through towns from Christchurch to Dunedin on Friday.
Last year, about 100 students appeared in court after a weekend of bottle-throwing and couch-burning on Dunedin's notorious Castle Street.
About 95 arrests were made between Friday evening and Monday morning, mainly for disorderly behaviour.
Police used batons to subdue students, with several officers hit by flying beer bottles as the Fire Service battled a series of fires as students set couches on fire in the street.
Ensoc said today it had been working closely with local authorities in Ashburton, Timaru, Oamaru and Dunedin to minimise any possible disruption to local residents.
The pubs chosen this year were away from the city centres to avoid congestion.
Each vehicle acted as an engineering project with teams requiring a budget, technical knowledge and some sort of management so that the many tasks required to decorate the vehicle were completed on time, Ensoc said.
Police would be briefed to ensure a safe event.
- NZPA
