The May Ball goes woke! Male Cambridge students are allowed to wear gowns while women can wear black tie to the famously lavish end-of-year event
- Chaps can party in ball gowns, and ladies can go in dinner jackets and black ties
- Colleges that announced the new dress code include St John’s and Homerton
For nearly 200 years, Cambridge University students have let off steam after the end-of-year exams by dressing up for the famously lavish May Balls.
But now the young men and women with glittering futures have been told they can put on each other’s finery – meaning chaps can party in ball gowns, while ladies can go in dinner jackets and black ties.
Colleges that have announced the updated dress code include St John’s and Homerton, who both state in their balls’ terms and conditions: ‘We do not discriminate by gender regarding dress code.’
The dress code for the £210-a-head bash at St John’s, which was founded in 1511 and whose alumni include 12 Nobel Prize winners and seven prime ministers, is ‘black tie or national dress’, while dresses must be ‘below the knee in length’ and white tie is ‘not permitted’.
But it adds: ‘Within the acceptable attire listed above, please wear what you’d like.’
Students from Cambridge University make their way home after celebrating the end of the academic year at a May Ball, June 2022
A group of students are pictured enjoying the May Ball at Cambridge University’s Trinity College – a celebration of the end of the academic year, June 2022
Homerton, which was founded in 1768 and has produced luminaries including Academy Award winner Olivia Colman and former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion, strikes a similar tone for its £150 event.
Students have been told to ‘wear what you feel most comfortable in’ as long as it follows the formal dress code.
Other colleges have gone further by easing up on the strict rules for attire altogether.
Corpus Christi, where tickets are £170, says on its website: ‘Black tie, white tie and national dress are all acceptable attire.’ But it adds: ‘We recognise that outfits can be a disproportionate expense; any reasonable effort at black tie will therefore be accepted.
‘As a guide, the smartest clothes guests already own are likely to be suitable.’
Meanwhile, Clare College is encouraging students to cut costs and help the environment by sourcing ‘their attire sustainably’, whether they are ‘second-hand, rented or clothing swaps’.
In a further sign of tradition going woke, some of the student-run ball committees have arranged quiet rooms with free ear plugs for those who find the fireworks and live music too noisy, despite neighbours having no choice but to be subjected to them.
For nearly 200 years, Cambridge University students have let off steam after the end-of-year exams by celebrating at the May Balls
Students attending the May Balls have now been told to ‘wear what you feel most comfortable in’ as long as it follows the formal dress code. A group of last year’s attendees are pictured
Downing College, which is charging £179 for entry, said: ‘The quiet room can be found in Meeting Room 1 – this room will have seating with arm and back rests, adjustable lighting and ear plugs.’
The lavish food laid on at the events will also be inclusive, with students being offered vegetarian, vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, halal and allergen-free options.
Emmanual College added on its website: ‘We are also hoping to have a completely nut-free event but we are currently finalising with our caterers.’
A source familiar with the balls said: ‘I’ve seen the odd man in a dress before but it wasn’t an official thing – some colleges have fancy dress themes.
‘It’s quite a change for them to state this formally on their websites.’
A local added: ‘You often see women wearing jackets borrowed from their male companions as they head home in the morning, but this is different.
‘And the quiet rooms are interesting. We’re kept up late by the noise every year but no one is offering us ear plugs.’
May Balls started in the 1830s but the first official one was the First and Third Trinity Boat Club May Ball in 1866.
Punts fill the River Cam as people watch a firework display during the May Ball at Cambridge University’s Trinity College last year, June 2022
Colleges that have announced the updated dress code include St John’s and Homerton. A group of students are pictured on their way home after attending the May Balls in June 2019
The parties used to take place in May, in the week before exams started, but now are held just after them in June.
Little changed for decades until the 1960s, when colleges began switching stuffy dance orchestras for rock bands.
Today, they are lavish affairs with fireworks, light shows, casinos, bouncy castles, dinners – and breakfasts for late finishers – with budgets running into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Some have overstepped the boundaries of taste, however. In 2018, a promotional video for the Hughes Hall party was banned because the college said it was ‘overly sexualised’.
The trailer for the party – which had a ‘forest of sin’ theme – showed masked men and women escaping into the woods to kiss and pour champagne in each other’s mouths. Entertainment included burlesque, pole dancing and massages.
A St John’s spokesman said: ‘Guests at the annual St John’s College May Ball are free to choose their own attire based on the approved dress code.’
Homerton declined to comment.
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