The first ever Oxford Afro-Caribbean Society Ball has had to be cancelled after lack of cooperation from other universities, leaving it to pick up £3000 worth of costs.The ball, which was scheduled for Saturday of fifth week and was organised in conjunction with Durham, Birmingham and York Universities, was called off following a meeting on Monday. The Oxford society, which has around two hundred members, sold the required seventy tickets for the event, while York managed twenty eight, Durham three and Birmingham only one. Ticket-holders are now to be refunded the forty pound ticket price, leaving the Oxford branch of Afro-Caribbean Society (xACS) to come up with £3,000 towards the cost of the ball and the responsibility for ensuring that the other universities’ societies also pay their share.Ball President Ore Oyeleke, who had been working on plans for the ball for over a year, said, “The initial premise was that we would all sell seventy tickets so that we would have two hundred and eighty people.”“When I came up with the idea I wanted it to be an inter-university ball which just happened to be in Oxford. It would have been annual so next year it would have been held in York and so on.” As Oyeleke was responsible for liaising with the Kassam Stadium and the onus is on xACS to make sure that the other societies pay up.According to Oyeleke, xACS is currently receiving advice from law tutors on the issue. She said, “The emails between the universities count as legal contracts. The only problem we have now with the ACS is that events will have to be more profit-based because we owe someone money, rather than just giving our members loads of stuff.” Members of the society had being looking forward to the ball and, given the late announcement of cancellation, had already bought outfits for the event which was to be held at Kassam Stadium, which has been the venue for the Oxford University Hindu Society’s Michaelmas Term Diwali Ball. In an email she sent to members of the Oxford society, Oyeleke said that she expressed “extreme regret to have to announce that the Homeland Paradise Ball has been cancelled.” Oyeleke said that she hoped that the cancellation would not damage the reputation of Oxford’s Afro-Caribbean Society. She said, “When cancelling became an option, I was worried because as I’d put so much work into it, I thought it would damage my personal reputation. But the fact is that Oxford has the smallest percentage of ethnic minorities whereas Birmingham have maybe double that.” She adds that members have been supportive and understanding of her decision. Although the xACS is simply a society for the appreciation of African and Caribbean culture, Oyeleke says many people mistakenly think that in order to join you have to be African or Caribbean. Oyeleke said, “At events like our street-dancing, most people who turn out are white or not Afro-Caribbean.”The xACS is now beginning plans for another big event for its leavers in the beginning of Trinity term.
Afro-Caribbean Society to foot £3,000 bill after ball plans abandoned
