The Mansfield Ball, which took place last Saturday, received a host of bad reviews from ball attendees.
The theme ‘Doors of Perception’ promised the Ball to be an “extravagance of sensory stimulation” and “incredible music, dazzling light and colour, and food and drink to blow the doors of perception completely off their hinges.”
However, a second year from Merton, who left the Ball at midnight, told Cherwell, “The coolest part of the ball was an illuminated eye watching over us; if only the Mansfield Ball committee had been so considerate in watching over our basic needs on a cold February night. I was happily tucked up in bed and woke up without even a touch of hangover. How disappointing.”
A Pembroke student who attended the Ball commented, “The hot food ran out by 11, there was no appropriate main bar in the main stage and no hot drinks. Even if the music had been good in the main stage it was too cold for anyone to have even wanted to think about dancing. The highlight was smoking my own cigarettes and stealing some marshmallows and toasting them on an outside heater, hardly worth the £90 expenditure.”
Despite negative reviews, Instagram revealed some positive comments towards the Ball. One ball-goer posted, “Casually clubbing in a chapel as you do #mansfieldball #club #church #weird #goodtimes.”
An attendee on the Facebook page also showed positivity, posting, “Thank you for all your hard work that resulted in a fabulous night!”, while a Mansfield second year commented, “It was definitely an original experience.
“It’s a shame the ‘pleasure dome’ was chilly but the fact that the chapel was transformed into a dance-floor was genuinely amazing and was so buzzing. Overall it was just a great night.”
However, several attendees did write on the Facebook event during the ball with complaints such as “Can we get some standard drinks somewhere without too much sugar. I have diabetes” and “M9 where are the tunes.”
One second year who attended the ball commented on the Facebook page, “Cold as balls not gonna lie”.
The Ball committee were quick to defend themselves. Responding to a question on the event page about the lack of food and drinks, the President replied, “Because supplies of these things ran out due to much higher demand than expected. This is fairly obvious. Thanks for your constructive comments though, we’re glad our guests were so very perceptive.”
