It had been proposed that the UL Ball, which could be held at Alexandra Palace, could take place as early as summer 2004. Suggestions have been made though that it might be more feasible to put plans in place for an event in summer 2005.
Whenever it takes place, it is envisaged that the University of London Summer Ball would replace the IC Ball for that year since it’s estimated that there would be difficult to generate interest to generate sufficient ticket sales to support both events.
The UL Ball could be, however, bigger and more spectacular than any IC ball. It is thought that, should Alexandra Palace be used, the Ball could make use of its full 10,000 person capacity.
Although no key decisions have yet been made, members of the ICU Executive have privately expressed their support for the idea. Support for the idea outside of ICU is mixed. One Union source asserts that as well as ICU, some smaller and medium sized college Unions have also expressed enthusiasm for the idea, but declined to identify which. Comments were made however that ‘Kings are wavering’ and that though UCL are protective of their own summer ball they did express the opinion that their own ball isn’t very good.
Interest for the event within ULU itself has been described as ‘luke warm’, however the Ball need not necessarily be organised by the federal union - a consortium of London Unions could organise a London-wide Summer Ball off their own backs. Whether organised through ULU or as a consortium of Unions, the financial arrangements for an event of this scale that is not guaranteed to break even, have great potential to become contentious. In attempt to overcome some of the problems, it’s been suggested that a company could be set up to manage the Ball. Each Union taking part in the ball would be a shareholder of this company and the board of directors would constitute representatives from the Unions. Another option aired is that of employing an external company with experience in such large scale events to organise the ball.
There are many hurdles to be overcome and many factors to be considered before this idea becomes a reality. On the somewhat frivolous side though, one factor that will probably put many Imperial College students in favour of a ULU wide ball; that the male-female ratio at other London colleges is considerably more even than at Imperial.
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