This queue cost them £120 each...
I had an inauspicious start to the countdown of my first ever Cambridge May Ball. It began with a phone call to my boyfriend (currently up in the frozen wastes of the North looking at atoms. Or particles. Or something):
‘The tickets are HOW MUCH?’
Now, I should explain that my boyfriend (let’s call him Jeff, just for fun) goes to Durham, a normal University. At normal Universities, students do not pay £100+ for one evening of light entertainment. Even if there are fireworks and a chocolate fountain. This pretty much scuppered my scheme to get him to come to my May Ball (and, for the record, Clare and Josephine Butler colleges, thanks for holding your balls on the same day – so helpful of you), so I had to resort to other tactics. However, as he was 200 miles away, I couldn’t resort to my normal strategy to get him to do what I want, which generally involves bribery in the form of sexual favours. I had to actually sell the Ball to him.
This got me thinking. £120 (the price of a Clare May Ball ticket) could buy a lot of things. For instance, I could get 12 copies of Vampire Weekend’s new album (what if I really, really liked it?) or 36 issues of Cosmopolitan. I could fly to Rome and back with 2p to spare. Pound for pound, one May Ball ticket is the equivalent of going to Cindies 40 times. That’s nearly six weeks straight of stickiness and cheesy music.
It gets worse. Of course, for a May Ball, as for any occasion, the ticket price isn’t the only dollar you’ll be handing over. Jeff would have to come down on the train from Durham, which for a return costs £100. I will have to bow to the pressures of society and go to the Ball in something a little more dressy than trackies and a hoodie. So a dress would be perhaps another £100. Add on say, £30 for shoes, another £40 for a bag, jewellery, make up, etc, and then another £30 for a hairdresser. Plus, of course, £260 for two ball tickets (oh yes, they slap on another £20 for guest tickets). Fortunately, Jeff already has his own tux. Even so, our total estimated bill would be close on £600. For a single evening. That’s enough for a family of four to spend a week’s holiday in Cornwall, with £100 spending money. Feeling queasy yet?
And so, as a Fresher, wide-eyed and blithely innocent of summer at Cambridge, there are two perspectives you can take to the extravagance of May Balls. You can continue to subscribe to the dreamy-starspangled Cambridge you envisioned when you applied all those months ago, dismissing the huge burning hole in your bank account by saying, ‘but it’s Cambridge.’ In my mind, those three words can be applied to a lot of quirky occurrences here – writing an essay at 4am still smelling of Cindies, wearing a gown despite looking quite a lot like a vulture, nearly getting mown down by a posse of cyclists foaming at the mouth – but I wonder if they’re quite enough to gloss over a price tag which, if it was for anything else, would cause riots in the streets?
To put it in an even sharper perspective, think what a difference £600 would make to the inhabitants of Haiti.
And so your other perspective would be to be a little more cynical. Behind the glitter of the ‘University of Cambridge’ moniker – this year named the UK’s second most prestigious brand, only beaten by Mercedes-Benz – the University got away with patriarchy, nepotism and class discrimination for far too long (Magdalene College became mixed in…can you guess? No, it’s worse than you thought. The answer is 1988, two years before I was born). I do feel fortunate to be attending the University when these issues are continually being addressed, but it does beg the question: even though we are the ‘privileged few’ who get to see Cambridge University ‘warts and all’, are we still being dazzled by the Cambridge ‘brand’ so that we cripple ourselves for one night in which it will probably rain?
I suppose what I’m ultimately asking is, this time, will all that glitters actually be gold? Will the sparkle and allure of the words, ‘Cambridge May Ball’, transform an occasion in which I will be wearing control pants into a truly magical experience?
Ask me again on the 15th June. You’ll find me hiding from my bank manager.
Pipe down fresher.
good point well made
nobody cares what a fresher who hasn't been to any may balls thinks about may balls.
Newnham College became mixed in…can you guess? Moron. And what does gender have to do with class discrimination anyway?
Gender has nothing to do with class discrimination, I was itemizing. And I don't appreciate being called a moron.
Also, why shouldn't we care what freshers think about May balls? They have the unique perspective of being 'in the Cambridge bubble' but haven't yet experienced one of the defining features of Cambridge university. So, if you don't care what I think, why did you bother reading the article and commenting?
I, personally, think you should be writing about a different subject. "Unique" as your view may be, it is mostly so because it is less informed than those who have been to May Balls. I think you overdramatise the issue. It is hardly fair to include the costs to your boyfriend in Durham. Or indeed to suppose that any clothing costs are sunk investments. Although most people probably already own suitable clothing, even in the case of necessity of buying one it would be profligate never to wear it again. You should, therefore, count only ticket cost really, which even at the reasonably expensive cost at Clare is only a fifth of your stated £600!
Erm, I disagree about Durham being a 'normal University'… it's a TINY place with even worse clubbing that Cambridge where almost every student is a bitter Oxbridge reject who therefore attempts to create their own bit of Rah in the North. Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow, London = normal. Durham, no.
ah piss off guys, Its an OPINION article, clue's in the name
an opinion on something she hasn't experienced yet. Awesome journalism guys.
don't listen to them holly.
not interested – clearly, otherwise you would have paid more attention. the opinion was about the price and the expectation. really cambridge, must try harder.
yes, as a fresher you have every right to have an opinion – though i would think that a comment like that was mere jest wouldn't you? or "banter" as the chaps so fondly call it.
speaking as someone who worked at magdalene, and was trusted enough to have a master key, i found it interesting about when it became unisex.
and you should definitely get him to come down for a cambridge ball. perhaps just one, and make sure it isn't taking valuable time at the end of his third year, but durham balls are fun, but no match for a cambridge one unless you go to castle or hatfield. josephine butler certainly won't hold a candle to clare. at least not in terms of how pretty the grounds are.
Durham isn't full of oxbridge rejects. There are an awful lot of them, but it isn't entirely. And klute dicks all over cindies.
Good article though, and a good point. Assuming neither of you are in particular financial hardship, it is def worth persuading him to come down once.
Mike… Is your surname Hunt
"Pipe down fresher."
- "good point well made"
"nobody cares what a fresher who hasn't been to any may balls thinks about may balls."
Ah, isn't that the glorious dismissal of opinion and thought that Cambridge students have become so renowned for by the general populace over recent years? The one of the important ways we learn our facts and add to our knowledge from is from the thoughts of other people, perhaps you should try learning some time… that is, of course, why you are at university.
"an opinion on something she hasn't experienced yet. Awesome journalism guys."
Please don't try to tell me you've never had an opinion on something you've never tried before, and that that prejudice hasn't influenced your actions? An opinion on something that hasn't occurred is still a valid opinion nonetheless, and there's insight to be gained. See above for further clarification.
…But, as I've previously made a point about, it's certainly worth having an opinion about things, and why not make your opinion heard? While the ignorant and pretentious few decide to make it known they disagree entirely and try to force the rest to do the same, the sensible majority will look on the article and take it into account with their own views, and perhaps modify them accordingly. If not, then so be it, but they should at least be thought upon, rather than dismissed so instantly in such a pretentious, stuck-up manner.
Agreed Dave.
And Tom, do you go to cambridge balls cos youve got none of your own rofl rofl?
Actually, my nickname is cunning stunt. OMG lol lolz kthxbai.
"An opinion on something that hasn't occurred is still a valid opinion nonetheless"
Are you trying to say that May Balls haven't occured before? When over 2/3 of the undergrad population have already been to a ball, why not get an accurate opinion rather than someone guilting us into thinking about Haiti?
"it's certainly worth having an opinion about things, and why not make your opinion heard?"
Daily Mail readers have opinions on things. It doesn't make them sensible or well-informed opinions. Or you could go to the Suns comment pages on their website, or the BBCs 'Have Your Say'. Full of opinions, full of crap.
are you thick?
It says quite clearly she is writing from the perspective of a fresher at Cambridge and about the way in which the may ball is presented to them. I don't understand what the fuss is about.
As someone who has been to quite a few may balls over my time at Cambridge, I can only agree with what Holly says. The tickets are very expensive for your average student, and while blokes can wear the same DJ to every ball, girls can end up spending a considerable amount of money on clothes, bags and the like in order to maintain expected sartorial standards (re-use of accessories is particularly difficult when so many high street items have a nasty knack of breaking upon first use).
Of course we buy into the may ball concept – the idea of may week is what keeps us going through exam term. But Holly is right in anticipating that the idea of any may ball she attends has the potential to outshine the reality of her experience on the night. It's just common sense – the more you build something up (and let's face it, when it costs this much, you need to justify it to yourself) and the more value you attach to a night, the harder it is for all your expectations to be met.
The real question is why so many people seem to be threatened by Holly's suggestion that the may ball experience might not always be worth the money we fork out for it. Hitting a little close to home, perhaps?
As someone who paid a solid £125 for a queue jump ticket to my first may ball last year, recycled an old dress and only forked out another 8 for flip flops, I can happily say that it was totally worth it – may balls, while pricey, are something you'll never again experience in your life, and it was probably the best event I've ever been to so far.
The majority of people don't blow £600 on a ball. And also have a damn fantastic time.
Honestly, including the cost of coming down from Durham and new dresses into the cost of a May Ball is ridiculous. This whole business about girls being unable to wear a ball dress more than once has struck me as ridiculous before – if you do refuse to re-wear a dress, then you really can't complain about having to splash out all the time!