UKA i Ås in the 1980’s:

Fresh and cheeky students with a political engagement

At the UKEopening of UKA i Ås 1980 Thorvald got his Thora. It was about time since 40 percent of the first-year students at NLH were girls. The UKErevue’s name “Vis-a-vis" thematized how the mass media portrays the world. It was, for the time being, shown in Aud.Max., because the house was under construction. The sheriff in Ås expressed that he wanted to move UKA i Ås to Bloksberg because the participants’ noise and consumption of alcohol often was a burden to the police. Internal political disagreements about the festival's structure also created poor prerequisites before it. Measures against drinking, such as focusing on a good selection of food and alcohol-free drinks, as well as higher prices on alcohol, were made.

“UKAåttito må ikke gå i do! (UKAeightytwo must not go down the drain!)” was the motto of the Head of Revue Torun E. Bråthen. UKA i Ås 1982 did not! Bråthen was the first female Head of Revue, and leader for the imaginative revue “FantÅsi”. Politics in developing countries was on the agenda in general. For example, two NOK of each revue ticket went to building a school in Zimbabwe. The light cages with lights controlled by people placed just beneath the roof in Aud.Max. were established. The student radio Agradio was made, and it had its airtime during the night at 00:00-02:00. The opening of UKA i Ås included 5000m beer race at Storebrand. Can you imagine how that was compared to the 3000m beer that we have now?

UKA i Ås 1984 emphasized traditions, at the same time it was supposed to be fresh and cheeky. Among other things, it was the longest UKA i Ås, lasting 5 whole weeks. Vømmøl Spelemannslag performed, and the festival turned 50. “FREKK-VE-SENS" was the name of the revue, which was quite bold. The trends were maybe the result of the previous UKA i Ås taking many refreshing choices about structure and culture. It was said that UKA i Ås 1982 was Norway’s biggest all-out effort. This can probably be said about the festival for all other years as well. This is also true for UKA i Ås 2024, where yours truly is sitting with their hands on the keyboard one week before the start of the festival.

The block system in UKA i Ås is still organized after it was established to UKA i Ås 1986 to improve the organizational work. It was also new that we had a main sponsor for UKA i ÅS, this year it was UNI Forsikring. Criticism of UKA i Ås risking being controlled by market forces was defended by saying that new thinking should take place within a given framework and with tradition in mind. The name “UNI Forsikring” was revealed next to the name of the UKErevue “Dyr i drift”. An insurance company named “Dyr i drift” does not seem very attractive. This was unfortunate for the company’s marketing, but in retrospect it is pretty funny! The revue song from UKA 1986, “Dyr i drift” is still being sung by Sangkoret Lærken. 

UKA i Ås 1988 was mentioned as a limitless cultureUKE, full of, among other things, jazz fair in the church in Ås and a meeting about the immigration politics in Ås municipality. UKA i Ås survived an assassination attempt when the world record in wood stacking was broken with 10 whole meters. The stack was driven into by a tractor. The tractor was broken, and the purpose is only known by the tractor driver. UKA i Ås 1988 showed a rocked and universal UKErevue with three Hankatts in the ring. It was tied together with the title cut “Ååzonn’ja?!”, which was also the name of the show.