May Balls and June Events – Posh or Not?
Melina Gehring, who is studying together with her boyfriend here in Cambridge, has written a wonderful article about the May Ball Season that has occupied Cambridge.
I had the chance to visit four events: the June Event at Emmanuel College, the May Balls at Clare College and St. Johns, and last night the June Event at my own college, Trinity Hall. Melina is right that these Balls are a really unique experience: champagne, cocktails food at every corner, music of all kinds, comedians, fairground attractions.
The luxus is reflected in the Ticket prices, starting at around 50 Pounds and running up to sometimes three times as much at the more fancier May Balls of Trinity and St. Johns. That is the reason why a lot of Cambridge students, including me, work for half a night at the balls and then get the rest of the night off, saving the ticket price while still be able to enjoy the good times.
May Balls (even though they take place in June) mark the end of the academic year in Cambridge. Next week, undergraduates will get their certificate and leave the university, the last two week exams were written and May Bumps allowed to relieve some of the tension built up through the year.
The May Balls requires festive clothing and yes, from a German perspective the whole affair sounds very posh. The May Ball at St. John’s College is considered to be one of the best parties in the world. But my impression was not that the May Balls are celebrating some sort of elite-thinking, like Melina suggests in her article.
Cambridge is simply a university where most of its traditions and social occasions have had centuries to develop. The May Balls are a way to celebrate a student party like they would have been celebrated a hundred or two hundred years ago (except that most Colleges did not admit female students before the second half of the 20th century). At Clare May Ball, I could listen to excellent piano music at five in the morning, and I was not the only admirer. Most students preferred some quiter music at the end of the night. Yesterday, I went to a packed concert of a young folk singer, which was really a counterbalance to the Techno and Rock bands playing in other parts of the College.
What I want to say is: yes, it is possible to behave like a complete snob in Cambridge, exaggerating poshness and feeling detached from the rest of the world. But my impression is that this is a matter of choice. It’s also possible to simply have a good time with your friends, most people here are really normal in the sense that they don’t think that they belong to a special group of people who deserve to study here and only here. Most people I met here are aware that Cambridge comes with lots of really strange traditions, like the May Balls. But the real world is not a May Ball, and I think everybody is aware of that.
