Queens’ College has cancelled its 2021 May Ball, it has been announced today.

In an email seen by Varsity, the President of the Queens’ May Ball Committee said that holding a May Ball this year would be “neither feasible nor sensible”.

The statement cites the “significant uncertainty that’s going to remain until at least Easter Term” as one of the reasons behind the Committee’s decision.

The email also states that alternative arrangements to a larger-scale event, such as a socially-distanced event, would be more expensive per person due to little variation in fixed costs across different sizes of event.

The President of the Committee added that it “doesn’t feel right to hold an expensive celebration” following a year in which “many of us will have lost loved ones and livelihoods”.

The Committee also suggested that it will attempt to hold an end-of-year celebratory dinner in June “if the situation permits”, and that it will attempt to postpone this year’s May Ball until June 2022, for which it is hoped that all of this year’s ticket holders will be eligible.

The President of the Committee told Varsity that as the Queens' May Ball is biennial, they have "always extended the offer of student-price tickets to recent graduates, and we believe this will be especially important for the next May Ball too as so many students have had their normal university experiences cut short."

They added: "The committee have been working hard over the last year [...] [and] tried hard to come up with innovative ways to hold an event before coming to this decision [...] [which] was of course a very difficult and disappointing decision to have to make, especially seeing how much effort has gone into preparations so far by everyone involved."

This follows the cancellation of all May Balls and June Events last year due to public health restrictions in the earlier stages of the pandemic in the UK.

Update (28/01/2021): Reference to a Queens' May Ball last year has been removed since the event is biennial and was due to be held this year