The Welly Ball After Party (where you might as well have worn a rain jacket too)

By Anonymous

The Welly Ball after party was a thrilling, three-fold challenge. At the start of the night, my friend and I arrived to a long queue of excited, chatty students outside Younger Hall, squirming in the light, drizzling rain. We were in high spirits. We’d just seen comedian Daniel Sloss and were ready to end the night on a high note: dancing with friends, who we’d planned to meet there. Yet after being shoved into the side of the bus as well as the bus door, being further jostled about in the dance floor at Kinkell Byre, and being literally showered in champagne, among other things, the Welly Ball after party felt more like a chaotic, off-campus rave.

After my friend and I caught the third bus to leave (for after standing around for about half an hour, groups of bearded men (students?!) mysteriously materialized in front of us), we were dropped off at Kinkell Byre amidst the masses of other eager beavers. The entrance and first room we entered was smartly done and very cute, with wellies of all shapes, sizes, and colors hanging along the walls and lining the arched pathway leading into the venue. Our first stop was the cloakroom, but upon seeing the monstrous cluster of people in what was supposed to be a line, we decided against it and flung our coats up onto a stack of chairs, which we found on our way to our next stop, the bar. After shoving through throngs of people on their way for a smoke, we find yet another hoard of people in front of the bar, which required more shoving in order to access the front of the bar. For the quality being served, drinks were senselessly overpriced. The bar was a sticky mess covered in mysterious substances, and the back counters were littered with discarded bottles and empty containers. It was hard to communicate or hear what people were saying over the din of the night and the constant jostling coming from behind, and by the time you made it out of the crowds with your drinks they’d be half empty from all the pushing and subsequent spilling that occurred. Nonetheless, my friend and I downed several (much needed) drinks, miraculously located our other friends, and headed to the overcrowded corral aka dance floor. We succeeded in making our way through the crowd, only to be ping ponged off other ball goers every other second as students swayed and bopped to the thumping, blaring music. The highlight of my experience came next, when I received a generous portion of champagne down the back of my hair and dress as two guys guzzled the champagne, one spewing it at my friend’s face, the other completely missing his mouth and dumping it on me. Clearly now that I was drenched, sticky, tired, and only slightly intoxicated, I would surely have a blast!

I must acknowledge that there was a five-minute calm after the just described storm. My friends and I enjoyed several songs before heading out for the night, stopping in the big white tent for a few photos, taken by one of the many student groups documenting the event. In fact, the music performed by the guest artists was great accompaniment for dancing. The Welly Ball after party had the potential to be such a fun night, living up to the hype I’d heard beforehand if only certain aspects such as the bar and cloakroom were better organized and had more staff working. Maybe hiring security to navigate the crowds and lines would have helped as well. Fortunately, I was saved from the transportation and cloakroom calamities that I heard happened later in the evening, as my friend and I were got a bus home relatively early on. My night at Welly Ball after party 2k15 involved a lot of shoving through crowds, being ricocheted off strangers, and struggling to find friends, topped off by an overall feeling of being sticky, dirty, and tired, but I hope and believe that next year’s students will produce an even better Welly Ball.