Dunedin's Captain Cook Tavern held their Cook-a-thon while the Bowling Green Tavern gave students an opportunity to drink a tanker dry.
The Cook-a-thon event saw a range of colourful and quirky costumes on display, including bumblebees, fairies and green body paint.
It was an early start for some participants as a queue formed outside the tavern at 6.30am waiting for the doors to open at 10am, general manager Stu Munro said.
A $25 entry fee gave the students a T-shirt, a jug of beer and three meals during the day.
After concerns were raised by people urinating outside the tavern and inside neighbouring businesses' toilets during the last event in July, organisers placed two portable toilets outside the tavern for those in the queue to use.
Barriers were also set up to "keep everyone safe", Mr Munro said.
Dunedin City Council liquor licensing inspector Tony Mole spent some time at the event yesterday afternoon and was pleased with what he saw.
"Security were doing an excellent job and there was no intoxication in general within the premises."
He also believed the problems from the previous event had been addressed.
Numbers were down on July's event, which more than 500 people attended.
Mr Munro put this down to the tertiary exam period starting this month.
"Those students who want to study hard are in the library and those who don't come here."