Chaos for UoB students as Grad Ball tickets website crashes

Here we are again. Two days after the night when Birmingham students prayed to the Guild Gods for a Grad Ball ticket. Students had the choice of what package to get: VIP (£77), Dinner & Event (£70) Event & After Party (£47), and Event Only (£40). Obviously, these all included a booking fee, and people were allowed a maximum of four tickets. Last term, 500 lucky final years were granted a priority pass and avoided the stress of the general release.

For those who didn’t get a priority pass,  the Guild asked students to ‘REMEMBER THE DATE: Tuesday 2nd May’ (the start of exams for many) when the tickets went on general release. Oh we did remember it, we really did….

Good luck with getting your ticket

From 7pm yesterday evening VIP and Dinner & Event Grad Ball tickets went on sale, with Event & After Party and Event Only tickets going on sale at 8pm. For the majority of students, 8pm was when they refreshed the Guild website page and attempted to grab tickets as smoothly as possible. I mean the Guild promised that ‘purchasing your tickets is easy’.

Unfortunately, 20 seconds in, the website crashed and students across campus were left wondering what to do? Right on queue, minutes latter, the University of Birmingham WiFi crashed, and many people were left with a blank screen, with the words ‘the service is unavailable’. Many students feared the worst when the website announced tickets were sold out. However, due to the websites crash, tickets continued to be available long after this announcement. The Fab ‘N’ Fresh page went from people begging for tickets (from someone offering their virginity, while another promising his car), to students selling tickets.

Hopefully you all got your ticket, as Grad Ball is the last big party before many students enter the tedious real world. This brings me nicely on to a point that dominated the Fab ‘N’ Fresh page throughout the night. The fact that some final years struggled to get a ticket, when freshers and second years did. It seems strange that Grad Ball is available to any student, and many called for future Grad Balls to allocate a ticket to each person graduating.

So right

In spite of a West Midlands mayoral election, and a general election on the way, the only debate occurring on the Fab ‘N’ Fresh page last night, concerned Grad Ball. Students blamed the Guild, others targeted specific staff (perhaps, unfairly), but some saw the funny side and blew up the like button through memes. Although lots of people did complain about the site crashing, and the Sage Pay site charging wrong amounts, it does seem that after a few deals the majority of those who wanted tickets got them.

Don’t tease me

For some the Grad Ball website chaos, was a perfect opportunity to make some dollar. This happened last year, and I am hoping that this year, most of the posts were not genuine. The idea that some people feel the need to charge students (who lets face it many will be close to the dreaded overdraft) seems savage.

Struggling to spell with all that cash in your hand?

I think for now, those final years who didn’t get a ticket can blame a number of people: the Guild, specific staff, crafty swindlers, freshers, Trump and so on. But in reality, organising an event for a mass number of people is never easy. However, if you are still feeling angry, there is always Vale Fest…..