A charity ball hosted by the comedian Bill Bailey hopes to bring a hint of the exotic to a corner of Oxford on Saturday evening.
The Ball is advertised as ‘orange tie’ and guests will be expected to augment traditional black tie dinner wear with exotic accessories.
The ball will raise money for endangered Sumatran orangutans and their fragile natural habitats. The charity works to restore rainforests and work with local people to protect the orangutans’ habitat.
Guests will be welcomed to the grandeur of the Oxford Castle Quarter with traditional Indonesian music and dance courtesy of the Oxford Gamelan Society and offered a complimentary glass of champagne or mulled wine.
Following a three course meal, Bill Bailey will share stories from his travels in Indonesia, where he has seen orangutans in the wild. There will also be an auction for items such as signed books by David Attenborough, a stay in a luxury tree house, and a crash course in perfume design with Lush’s top perfumer.
Helen Buckland from the Sumatran Orangutan Society reassured guests that they would not necessarily be expected to wear an orange bow tie and said, “any tropical touch will do.”
She added, “We do hope that some guests will wear orange, and have heard that there’s been a flurry of requests for orange bow ties in Oxford. We are looking forward to seeing how creative our guests will be with the dress code. And if anyone has left it a bit late to find the perfect outfit, we do have an orangutan costume.”
She said she felt unable to comment on alleged physical resemblances between the animals and comedian Bill Bailey but did say, “We all share 96.4% of our DNA with orangutans, but perhaps some people a little more. Bill has said he does feel a certain affinity with our red-haired ape cousins.”
Tickets cost £45 and can be bought at www.orangutans-sos.org