Fears were raised at LMH recently as pranksters circulated a mass email warning that the LMH Arcadia Ball was also called off.
Following the cancellation of Balliol Ball during the vacation, many were concerned that Lady Margaret’s would meet a similarly disappointing fate.
The prank came about after the Ball Committee sent an email to all those who had bought non-dining tickets, but did not hide the list of email recipients. 317 people received the prank message, sent at 1.30am last Sunday morning.
Thankfully for the 650 ball-goers who have already bought tickets, the story is not true.
“Please do not refund your dresses in panic, and be assured that this will not be taken lightly by the Ball Committee”, said Ball Secretary Emily Roberts, in a follow-up email headed ‘Damage Control’.
The prank certainly ruffled some feathers among LMH members, who had paid £130 for dining tickets, or £90 for non-dining. The spoof message “regretted to announce the cancellation of the LMH Ball” and assured students that they were “trying to organise refunds”.
The message was particularly surprising for first-year History student at LMH, Ewan Short. The email was sent from [email protected] – an email address that has nothing to do with him.
“At first I thought I might have sent the prank email”, Short told Cherwell, “because I remembered being quite drunk that night. But then I quickly realised it wasn’t from me. I think it was probably some third years who set up the account and sent the emails.”
Short thought it unlikely that the joke caused any serious distress. “I don’t think anyone in LMH would have attached any credibility to the email, because to be honest, I don’t have any credibility. But some recipients at other colleges may have thought it was serious.”
The real senders of the email have since come forward and apologised to the Ball Committee for the confusion.
Presidents of the Ball Committee, Charles Streeten and Emily Stott, were happy to accept the apology. “It’s water under the bridge now, and both College and the Ball Committee are satisfied it has been dealt with satisfactorily,” they said.
College authorities, JCR representatives and the Ball Committee were keen to play down the prank. Roberts said, “I could count on the fingers of two hands the number of people who thought it was serious”.
JCR President, Genevieve Clark, added “it wasn’t funny for the people involved, but everyone felt very quickly reassured that the ball will still be happening”.
This prank cancellation email is reminiscent of the apologetic online message from the Balliol Ball Committee, who actually did have to cancel the Balliol Ball last week, due to “underwhelming ticket sales”.
Balliol The Ball Secretary said “we were unable to sell enough tickets to even approach breaking even.”
It is reported that the Balliol Ball Committee spent a large proportion of its budget securing DJ Yoda as a headline act.
