Students lead charge to stop “extortionate” prices of Cambridge May Balls, up nearly 70% since 2018 

Cambridge is famous for its May Week, a period of extravagant balls and celebration after exams are concluded, but students are finding ticket prices unjustifiable, up nearly 70% since 2018 in some cases. Multiple colleges have cancelled or downsized their May Week events, many of which have run since the 1830s, including Emmanuel and Robinson, with others facing difficult conversations about sacrificing May Balls in favour of smaller-scale, lower-budget June Events in 2026 and beyond.  

Cambridge students, who are strongly advised by the university to not take up part-time employment during their terms of study, are increasingly stratified between those with wealthy families and extensive savings, and those who rely on Student Finance’s maintenance loan to cover their costs. Cambridge University Labour Club Co-Chair, Oscar Poulson, commented that “to stop the effective cordoning off of a group of students, a new middle ground has to be forged so that May Balls survive”.  

Robinson College, widely anticipated as one of May Week’s most affordable events, has scrapped its May Ball in favour of a “more accessible and inclusive” event, the committee announced in an email to ticketholders. Tickets were not released before the event was cancelled but were projected to be on sale for £158 for Robinson students. This shows a 58% increase in price since 2018, when the event sold out at £100 a ticket. One Robinson student called this a “big shame for finalists” but highlighted how the planned decrease in price meant that she was able to attend.  

The ball, first held in 1984, ran with a reduced budget in 2024, and was forced to offer reduced ticket prices to colleges on Grange Road to bolster ticket sales. However, the same measures were ineffectual this year, leading to the unsurprising downscaling of the event. The committee announced on social media that a “low ticket price event” was being planned, with the goal of ensuring that “as many Robinson students as possible can enjoy a fantastic May Week celebration”.  

Students across various colleges are pushing back against the increasing prices, proposing that June Events, which are usually £100-150, allow more students to access the core Cambridge experience of May Week. There are talks about the Gonville and Caius 2026 May Ball being scrapped in favour of a June Event, after ticket prices rose significantly in 2024 to £189 for Caius students, a price which is expected to rise to £210 by 2026. The college’s student union Class Act Officer promoted the idea of a June Event allowing access to more students, calling it “ridiculous” that the college refused to step in to subsidise access tickets for students in receipt of a bursary. In a fierce meeting with the May Ball Committee, she warned that the May Ball becoming a June Event may be “the only way in which it would be affordable”. It is students in similar positions on college unions who are leading the push to halt the price increases which make May Balls inaccessible to all but the richest students.  

The reluctance to convert May balls to June Events is caused by the emphasis of many on the prestige and legacy of the events. The main differences between the events include June Events having less music stages, offering lower variety of entertainment, whilst saving on set-up costs. The entertainment line-ups do not include any headliners, for which the May Balls are famous, based on a legacy of performances by the likes of Charli XCX, Scouting for Girls, Bastille and Loyle Carner at various Balls through the years. Trinity Hall June Event, which has itself seen a price rise of 47% since 2018, uses student bands and tribute acts to provide entertainment without splashing out on hiring well-known bands and artists. Other cost-cutting measures have included less variety of food and drink and an earlier finishing time, usually 3am rather than the traditional May Ball time of 5am. This year, Trinity Hall’s committee offered discounted tickets to seven colleges in their efforts to keep the event alive.  

Other colleges are facing similar issues, with Emmanuel College’s June Event this year being cancelled entirely, leaving final-year students bereft of a final celebration at their alma mater. The event, which sold out in 2018 with tickets priced at £85 for all, released tickets at a price of £121 for Emmanuel students and £141 for other colleges, showing a 66% increase in guest ticket price since 2018.  

The presidents posted an announcement on social media, saying that the cancellation was “due to lower-than-expected external ticket sales”. They went on to express their disappointment and their hope that the May Ball will return next year. This cancellation led other colleges, including Sidney Sussex and King’s, to offer Emmanuel ticket holders a reduced price for their own events, in a clear attempt to use the opportunity to help their own sales.  

Main expenditures are the cost of attracting musical stars, securing luxury food providers with offerings including kangaroo burgers and ostrich, and providing unlimited alcohol as lavish as LiquidAI’s customisable layered mini cocktails. Robinson was anticipated to have a star-studded musical line-up, after securing Clean Bandit’s services in the past. 

Sidney Sussex cancelled their May Week event on Monday (7/4) for the same reason, with tickets priced at £85 failing to sell. The planned event was vastly shortened, scheduled to finish at 10pm, compared to the 3:30am finish when the event sold out in 2018. One Sidney Sussex student said that ticket sales were caused by a “widespread worry about a watered-down event”, showing that students are increasingly frustrated by events being scaled down without a decrease in price.

Another student expressed his fears that the May Ball at which he is scheduled to work may be cancelled, saying “I can’t afford may Ball tickets, so I am working to cover my back. I am worried that with other events being cancelled, I might lose the job and not be able to afford May Week”.  
 
He expressed fear at the growing gap between Cambridge’s “haves and have nots”, something which is clearly reflected in only the richest students being able to enjoy May Week’s best events. Trinity College May Ball, considered by many as the most prestige event of the week, with an extravagant firework display, big-name music acts and lavish food and drink options, sold out its tickets at £280 for non-Trinity students. In 2015, the budget for the event was £286,000 excluding VAT, a number which has undoubtedly increased in the decade since.  

Students may turn towards other, more affordable ways to enjoy the May Week frivolities in the summer, including watching firework displays put on at the St. John’s, Clare and Trinity May Balls, from the outside, or attending garden parties. Jack Peters, the chair of the university’s Liberal Association, commented that “increased financial pressure is not a problem unique to May Balls but all aspects of student life”, and has urged the government to provide an economic plan which would mitigate the impact of rising prices on students. The decline in popularity of May Balls does not stem from a lack of enthusiasm, but rather a lack of funds available for socialising, which is plaguing students not just in Cambridge, but all over the country. 

This is an extended piece based on an article published in The Times on Monday 14th April, written by Per Capita’s Charlie Windle.

Cover Image from Wikimedia Commons. Cmglee, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons