{"id":516,"date":"2018-04-26T20:08:08","date_gmt":"2018-04-26T20:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=516"},"modified":"2018-06-25T20:10:21","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T20:10:21","slug":"gradballs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/04\/26\/gradballs\/","title":{"rendered":"GRADBALLS"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Students’ Union came under fire (http:\/\/scan.lusu.co.uk\/index.php\/2018\/04\/24\/a-glorified-school-disco-plans-to-move-grad-ball-to-the-great-hall-fall-flat-among-students\/<\/a>) after it announced the line-up and venue for this year’s Grad Ball. Students are deeply unhappy that the event is moving from Blackpool Tower to the Great Hall (where the majority of Grad Balls were held until 2012), and with the perceived ‘cheap’ quality of the acts on offer for \u00a355. It has been slammed as a ‘glorified school disco’ as though it were an insult, rather than exactly what Grad Ball has always been.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are reminded of the last time (http:\/\/scan.lusu.co.uk\/index.php\/2015\/04\/30\/students-priced-out-of-grad-ball\/<\/a><\/span>) the student body erupted in fury over the SU’s plans for Grad Ball. In 2015, students were deeply unhappy with the ticket prices (\u00a359), and sent numerous abusive messages to officers and staff complaining that LUSU didn’t keep costs down by… booking cheaper acts and moving the event to the Great Hall!<\/span><\/p>\n

What do they want? Jam on it?<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

GRADBALLS TO THE WALL<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not just the backlash to this year’s Grad Ball that reminds us of the uproar in 2015. Much like in 2015, a small number of enterprising students have decided to put on an alternative event, ‘by the people, and for the people.’<\/span><\/p>\n

The effort three years ago quickly fell apart like a clown’s car when nobody knew who was arranging it, announcements and venues were promised and passed us by, and none of the ‘organisers’ could explain how it was going to be funded. The students quickly lost faith in the project when they began to suspect that the organisers were just a bunch of slipshod hucksters after their money. The valiant heart of the rebel uprising sunk shortly thereafter.<\/span><\/p>\n

This year’s effort is a slightly more sophisticated one. The organisers are known (and popular on campus), they have a venue (Viva Blackpool, ‘one of the most prestigious event venues in the North.’ Apparently.), and the organisers have connections to ‘TABUKI’, a ‘well-established house music brand based in Lancaster.’<\/span><\/p>\n

What they don’t have, however, is any guarantee that the event will go ahead. It’s a ‘speculate to accumulate’ affair, and if there aren’t enough tickets sold to cover the costs of the venue and the acts, it’s refunds all round and no harm done. But if it does work out, it’d rely on students getting tickets without knowing what they’re going to get. If enough people duly fork out for their early bird ticket, how many are going to demand a refund when they find out that they’ve paid for a front row seat to see P.J. Proby, the KPM All-Stars, and a Pat Boone tribute artist? [What’s wrong with that? Sounds like a cracking night \u2013 Ed.]<\/span><\/p>\n

The subtext collective is mildly cynical, but we hope that both this and the official Grad Ball are a success.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Students’ Union came under fire (http:\/\/scan.lusu.co.uk\/index.php\/2018\/04\/24\/a-glorified-school-disco-plans-to-move-grad-ball-to-the-great-hall-fall-flat-among-students\/) after it announced the line-up and venue for this year’s Grad Ball. Students are deeply unhappy that the event is moving from Blackpool Tower to the Great Hall (where the majority of Grad … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[295,292,20],"class_list":["post-516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-grad-ball","tag-issue-176","tag-lusu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-8k","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":593,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/24\/sheer-brass-balls\/","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":0},"title":"BALLS UPDATE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 24 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A WHOLE NEW BALL GAME In subtext 176, we reported that the Students\u2019 Union had come under fire from students for what was perceived as a lacklustre Graduation Ball lineup and venue. With the event looking increasingly like a loss-making exercise, LUSU has now cancelled the event. This is unprecedented.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":530,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/04\/26\/subtext-176-for-the-avoidance-of-subtext\/","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":1},"title":"subtext 176 – ‘for the avoidance of subtext’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 26 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Fortnightly during term time. Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk Back issues & subscription details:\u00a0http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/about\/ In this issue: editorial,\u00a0fash, more fash, gender pay gap, UA92 (in four parts), bad governance, more governance, assistant deans, appeal for more assistant deans, bomb shelter update, grad ball, alternative grad ball, lu text lost and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "editorial"","block_context":{"text":"editorial","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":709,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/the-students-union\/","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":2},"title":"THE STUDENTS’ UNION","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"September 13 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It all started so well for the Students' Union. In subtext 169 we reported on their campaign against an unnecessary rent increase of up to \u00a3249. To make their displeasure known, LUSU set up a stall and put \u00a3249 worth of pasta on display. A little gimmicky, we thought, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "history"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":600,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/24\/democracy-does-good\/","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":3},"title":"DEMOCRACY DOES GOOD","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 24 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The last time subtext covered a city council by-election in University & Scotforth Rural ward (December 2016 - see subtext 156), the turnout fell to an all-time low for a public election this century. The last time campus residents went to the polls in a public election (June 2017 -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":472,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/15\/pg-tips\/","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":4},"title":"PG TIPS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 15 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Some months ago, a number of students were cross with LUSU for refusing postgrad students the right to play intercollegiate sports with their undergrad colleges. One of the unsuccessful LUSU Presidential candidates pledged to investigate how to make this possible. We at subtext thought this rather odd. Were people not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1098,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/11\/01\/special-feature-lancaster-university-students-disunion\/","url_meta":{"origin":516,"position":5},"title":"SPECIAL FEATURE: LANCASTER UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ DISUNION","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 1 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"SPECIAL FEATURE: LANCASTER UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' DISUNION Contributed articles by Ronnie Rowlands ONE SUGAR, PLEASE When we covered the Students' Union officer elections for the 19\/20 academic year, your subtext correspondents observed that the new crop of officers ought to make short work of becoming popular. LUSU had been awash with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "contributed article"","block_context":{"text":"contributed article","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/contributed-article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":517,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516\/revisions\/517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}