The 24 Hours of Stan is the biggest student event in France.
This event started in 1966 when the students at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie de Nancy, ENSA ancester of ENSAIA, had the idea to ride bicycles around the ice-covered square Place Stanislas for 24 hours, taking turns relieving each other, in order to promote the Agronomy ball.
In the 70’s, the bicycles were replaced with man-powered chariots, which were painted different colors according to a given theme. Other students from the universities and Grandes Ecoles in Nancy joined in with the Agronomy students and thus began a new tradition in Nancy’s student life.
Today, the 24 Hours no longer takes place in Place Stan, but in a neighboring square, Place Carrière. Students from nearly 40 engineering schools, universities and institutes in the Lorraine, and other teaching establishments in the region, participate in this event. There are close to thirty chariots at the beginning of the race.
Different activities have been developed and the spectators now has the pleasure of seeing artistic shows and visiting stands along with the race: games, concerts, raffles, painting exhibits, fanfares and choreographies from the pompom clubs.
The 24 Hours of Stan brings together more than 40,000 spectators and 4,000 students for one weekend every two years during the month of May. In the alternating years, another highlighting event, la Rencontre des Brasseurs (The Meeting of the Brewers), is put on by ENSAIA.
The 24 Hours of Stan is the major event in Nancy’s student life and it is entirely organized by the school’s student-engineers who are members of the CEOM: Comité Etudiant d’Organisation des Manifestations ENSAIA (ENSAIA’s Student Committee for Organizing Events). Nearly 30 students take on the responsibility of the entire event (organization, logistics, security, event programs, etc.) in cooperation with the town of Nancy, the Urban Community of Grand Nancy, the Prefecture of Meurthe-et-Moselle, the University of Lorraine and MGEL. The budget for the event amounts to €110,000.
The next 24 Hours of Stan will take place in 2016 and will celebrate the half-century of the existence of this symbol of Nancy’s student life.
