Friday, November 25, 2011

Gate Crashing Oxford Balls

 Here's an interesting post I'd like to talk about, along with Black-Tie/White-Tie experiences.  Gate-crashing balls seems to be quite a common thing, and while organizers should try to keep balls fair and safe (see part below), Oxford students will no doubt find ways around... and so the competition begins...

These annual balls are not cheap.  At over £100 for a White-Tie ticket (sometimes approaching £200 for a non-dining ticket!), there are many people who try to gate crash.  Some find ways to scale the walls, others try to dress up as the help, others try to swim over the river to get in.  A more interesting way of gate crashing was discovered as I was leaving the Merton Ball with a couple of friends.  Some guys on the street (dressed in white-tie) had the audacity to stop the taxi we were in, come around the side, open the back door, and asked for our wrist bands, saying they wanted to crash the ball.  One of my female friends was quite scared with that, while my other friend wanted to give them her band so that they would go away.  The New York side of me sprang up (I've had random drunk people open my taxi door when I was in it), and I refused, saying that we had somewhere to go, and slammed the door and told the taxi driver to drive.  As we left the taxi driver asked why didn't we just sell it to them for £10 pounds or something, given that it was midnight and it wouldn't close until 5:00 am anyway.  He had a good point, but based on principle it wouldn't be fair to everyone who paid full price, but more importantly it wasn't the safest situation with two females in a taxi and 3-4 male teenagers surrounding the taxi and coming around and opening the back door.  I'm sure they were able to find others leaving the Ball and get their tickets, but probably under less hostile circumstances. 


Many people have found innovative ways to gate crash as mentioned above, but it seems the organizers are getting smarter.  They use to use rubber bands (like the Armstrong Live strong bands), but apparently one student bought a machine that made these bands and was able to go to many balls for free.  So now the organizers have resorted to more innovative methods, such as a woven pattern band given only a couple days before (so its very hard to copy on such short notice) or a stamp or band given only when you enter.  Though I'm sure being Oxford, students will find ways around.... I only hope it won't be as dangerous as jumping walls or harassing others on the street (or in a taxi for that matter).  

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