With less than 200 tickets left to sell as it stands, Grad Ball 2011 and its them of Seven Deadly Sins, is having one of its most successful year of ticket sales to date.
There were originally 1400 tickets up for grabs, at the cost of £39.50 with a Purple Card and £49.50 without, and a thousand of those were sold on the first day of sales. Over the past five years the prices of Grad Ball tickets have fluctuated; in 2007 they were £36.50, but were considerably higher in 2009 at a cost of £57, £2 more than the previous year. Last year they cost £37.50, similar to the price of this year’s event. Arguably, the more reduced cost of tickets this year could possibly have something to do with its success; however, second year student Jenni Nowell said that she felt tickets were “still rather expensive” and that her driving force for attending the event was “to spend a nice evening with friends that are graduating” more so than anything else.
Vice President (Finance, Events, Democracy and Societies) Matt Windsor commented that “Grad Ball ticket sales this year have been really impressive overall. On the first day of sales we had queues that haven’t been seen before for years, so although we’ve not sold out, we’re obviously pleased by this result.”
Windsor went on to say that the unprecedented success could be “due, in part, to the issues we had with Extrav ticket queues last year, but primarily and more importantly, I think a lot of the students are impressed by the line-up and are simply wanting to go to the event.”
This year’s line-up includes Noisettes, recognisable for their hits “Don’t Upset the Rhythm (Go baby Go)” and “Never Forget You”, who will be headlining the event, along with popular Radio 1 D.J. Greg James. Supporting them is Stevie Starr, also known as The Regurgitator, whose novelty act won attention in the 2010 series of Britain’s Got Talent.
