Thursday, March 28Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Summer Ball 2013: Exposed

The thing at the forefront of everyone’s minds right now is the Summer Ball and we will be covering a lot of what’s going on. Through exclusive content from the SU, these are the facts.

The Summer Ball is an exclusively SU event, organised by the Commercial Services Management Team, and exclusively RoHo, sponsored only from within the University. A relationship has been built up with Luke from LFXEvents, who knows exactly how to put on a Uni Ball, just the way we like it.

The staff are pretty much all students too, although 3rd years are given the day off to enjoy. Yet, some partake in any case because it’s such a great event to be a part of. The students that you have been seeing all year around campus, serving you in all SU buildings, will be the ones at the Summer Ball.

Outside caterers are employed for the stands and there is a professional photographer inside Founders. There is also a crew involved who are part of a specialist team who can fit the Dodgems into Founders – quite a feat!

The Summer Ball takes months to organise, becoming full time in the weeks leading up to the event. On the actual day, managers work for 15 hours or more. As well as this, all other SU venues are open as normal, even the SU Blowout.

A problem students sometimes overlook is the extreme health and safety and insurance requirements that having such a beautiful building entails. The safety plan for the Ball is 200 pages long and the whole thing is considered a building site until RHUL H&S sign it off at 3pm on the day of the event. The event takes 9 days to build and is effectively a construction site with numerous regulations & legislations to deal with.

How are musicians and acts approached and asked to play?

LFX Events deal with this, because they know how to navigate the minefield for agents, managers and PR. Again, our contact Luke knows exactly what value the act has and if their price corresponds to it.

“A DJ we had last year was asking nearly double this year!”

The whole budget of the Summer Ball is only funded by student ticket sales. There are no outside sponsors. The budget for entertainment is 30% of ticket sales, and that’s all entertainment: disco’s, fairgrounds and the main stage. Every penny of ticket sales goes into the Ball. While most University Balls push them into heavy debt, ours always breaks even, and any money made goes back into the SU.

We have one of the only Balls in the country to run for 10 hours, with a location in the heart of campus. A true Royal Holloway celebration, in the beautiful Founders building.

We hope you have a great night!

Want to know where your money goes? Well… Main Stage, Marquees, Bar Hire, Artist Cabins & Toilets, Fencing (lots!), Ground Protection (RHUL are very protective of their walkways and grass) Plant Equipment, Forklift Hire, Fuel, Event Safety Barriers, Main Stage Sound & Lights, Main Stage Electrics, Video Mixing, Audio Visuals, Decor, Lights & Cable Hire, Customer Food, Stock Cost, Welcome Drink, Artist Catering, Staff Catering, Bar Stock , SU Bar Staff, Flair Bar Tenders, Glassware, Fruit, Ice, Ticket Printing, Wristbands, PDQ Charges, Postage & Printing Charges, Merchandise, SU Vehicles and Insurance, Cancellation & Equipment Insurance, Radio Hire, Bar Tills, Bar Furniture – Sofas & Picnic Tables, Refrigerated Trailers, Trestle Table Hire (x17), Artist Hotels, PPE, First Aid Equipment, Banners & Branding, Clean-up Costs, SU Security, External Security, SU Tech Crew, Pro ARC Tech Crew, Pro Crew, Headphone Disco Staff, Artist Liaison, Noise monitoring, First Aid Cover, Management Costs, Staff & LFX Accommodation, Event Management, Event & Production Managers SB13, Expenses.

Article: Corinna Taylor and Rachel Ivens

Photography: SURHUL