An important update for the Sports Ball
14 May 2024
If you’ve been on campus recently, you may have seen the main quad has been occupied by students who’ve formed an encampment. The encampment looks set to continue for an unspecified time.
Since the encampment started, we’ve been considering how best to run the events planned to take place in the quad. The difficult reality is that some of the events planned for the quad over the coming weeks (like the Sports Ball) are set to involve large-scale structures, stages, bars, and fairground rides. Because of the scale of these events, set up was due to start tomorrow (Wednesday 15 May).It is no longer possible to safely set up these structures around the encampment location, and to protect the safety and wellbeing of our community we’ve reached the difficult decision that this year’s Sports Ball can’t go ahead.
Although we don’t know when the encampment will end, and there’s a chance the quad will be clear by the date of the Ball, we can’t in good conscience continue to sell tickets without being able to guarantee the event will happen. Read more about the encampment here. What happens next:
- You will be automatically refunded the full cost of your ticket. You don’t need to do anything.
We’ve all been looking forward to the brilliant end of year awards ceremonies in the Bloomsbury Theatre, and these are still going ahead as planned. Free tickets are available - book yours now. We’re working on an alternative plan for the end of year awards afterparties for Awards Ceremony ticket holders to replace the Ball - we’ll share more information later this week.
We’re very sorry to bring you this news, we know how disappointed you will be, but the safety of our whole community remains our priority.