The Oxford University Hindu Society (HUMSoc) has postponed OxHoli 2015 until Michaelmas term after a last-minute venue cancellation. The event was due to take place on Saturday 23rd May, but plans to hold the Hindu festival of colours at Brasenose College Sports Ground fell through and the organisers were unable to find a different venue at short notice.
A few days before OxHoli was planned to go ahead, a message was posted on the OxHoli Facebook page apologising for having to postpone the event, stating, “We are so sorry but we’ve been put in the unfortunate position of having to postpone Holi for the time being. Our original venue cancelled on us very recently and we’ve been frantically searching for a new one since (with little success).
“We’ve tried almost every college sports ground – so do hit us up with any ideas and in the meantime we will continue to work hard.”
OxHoli is an event where participants throw coloured powder over one another to celebrate the end of the Winter season. Following on from the previous success of OxHoli, HUMSoc was keen to replicate the event and was planning to introduce live music this year, with DJ Ravi Skanker and DJ Salman Kushti on the line-up.
Srishti Suresh, the president of HUMSoc, commented, “Our original venue was not able to accommodate us owing to prior commitments; we contacted almost every space in Oxford with the capacity to host Holi, but due to the short notice and similar difficulties with the proposed dates (given that they either clashed with exam timings or sports matches) as well as valid concerns about the nature of Holi (as it does generate quite a lot of mess!) they were not able to accommodate us either.
“We are deeply saddened that we weren’t able to host OxHoli this term, but HUMSoc is currently going over plans for other events (such as our Bollywood night in 6th Week), which we hope people will be able to attend. In addition, we’re redirecting all our creative energy towards Diwali Ball, which we hope to host in Michaelmas.”
Brasenose Bursar Philip Parker told Cherwell, “The College would have been delighted to host this event at our sports ground, but made clear from the first communication (in March) that it would have to fit in with the schedule of cricket matches and other planned events. As cricket schedules are not fixed until late April, we pointed out to the organisers that it might be wise to find an alternative venue. Unfortunately it turnedoutthatamatch was scheduled on the desired day. Our Domestic Bursar did what he could to assist with finding another venue.”
HUMSoc plans to rearrange OxHoli for Sunday 11th October during Freshers’ Week.
