Students of the prestigious University of Oxford partied through the night at one of their May Balls, ticketed at £200 each. Revellers wearing flowing ball gowns, tweed and undone bow ties sauntered bleary-eyed through the cobbled streets of Oxford during the early hours of Sunday after events held at two separate colleges.
Lincoln College's 'Heaven or Las Vegas' Theme
Students from Lincoln College, the alma mater of former Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak, partied to a theme of 'Heaven or Las Vegas' after shedding £200-per-ticket for the event. The price, which exceeds the cost of a return flight to most European cities, included a performance from headliner Charlie Burg, a casino, an arcade games room and old-fashioned fairground rides such as the helter-skelter.
Brasenose College's 'Through the Looking Glass' Extravaganza
Meanwhile students from Brasenose College, which served as a filming location for thriller Saltburn, enjoyed a theme of 'Through the Looking Glass', which attracted Alice in Wonderland themed outfits, including Mad Hatters and card soldiers. Brasenose - where actor Michael Palin and another former Tory prime minister David Cameron studied - threw the more extravagant of the two balls, complete with several searchlights beaming into the sky.
The students' night ran from 5pm on Saturday until 5am the following day, when the last stragglers danced and sang, posed for photos, clambered over fences and even took naps on the grass. Students from Brasenose College are pictured lined up to enter the event in vibrantly coloured dresses, tiaras and even a knight's outfit, embracing the fantasy theme.
As night turned into morning, students were seen smiling, posing for selfies, waving their hands in the air - and in one case a large pink flower - while wrapping their arms around themselves to keep warm. Tickets for Lincoln College failed to sell out, while the marginally cheaper £182 tickets for Brasenose did.
History and Context of May Balls
May Balls are held by Oxford colleges exclusively for their own students, although guests from outside the college may also attend. The events take place in both May and June at Oxford. The May events are held during term time and typically before exams, as balls held in June follow the term's assessments - and are called Commemoration Balls. The elaborate, all-night parties date back to the 19th-century, and are shared by their rival Cambridge University.
The May Ball festivities come as a rising number of Oxford University students take to social media to build 'content' displaying the kind of academic prestige money can't buy. Known as an Oxfluencer, numerous students make a small fortune off whipping microphones out in tutorials and setting up cameras mid-service in King's College Chapel. The most successful are raking it in not only from views on YouTube and endorsement deals, but from private tuition on the art of perfecting tricky admissions interviews. Public accounts show Ruby Granger, who posted study videos of herself reading and drinking tea in rarefied libraries at Oxford, has more than £300,000 in the bank from her influencing activities.
