Is the Safer Sex Ball back? Cardiff promoter resuscitates lingerie-clad corpse of infamous event

A mysterious Facebook event popped up this Bank Holiday weekend, claiming to be the 2014 version of the banned Safe Sex Ball (SSB).

The event is set to be hosted by Electric Ents, who operate the ‘Exeter Freshers 2014-15’ page and run popular Cardiff student night Smack.

The events company plan to host the event in June and also operate a ‘SafeSex Ball Exeter‘ Facebook profile.

The Safer Sex Ball ran for 21 consecutive years, raising millions of pounds for RAG’s chosen charities down the decades

As suspected, the Guild has confirmed it has nothing to do with the Facebook event that appeared on Saturday.

A spokesperson said: “I can confirm that the Facebook group is not associated with the Students’ Guild or our student groups. The Students’ Guild has no plans to reinstate the Safe Sex Ball”.

They added: “The Students’ Guild would urge any student to carefully check the origins of an advertised event before parting with any money”.

Once the highlight of the Exeter social calendar, this was the first winter in years where this attire was considered inappropriate

The infamous charity event was scrapped last year following the ‘Blowmeo and Juliet’ scandal, when CCTV footage of an unidentified male receiving fellatio from an unidentified female was leaked by Guild staff and circulated nationwide on WhatsApp.

The story gained international media attention, featuring in the New York Daily News and French Closer magazine.

The Students Guild were quick to deny any affiliation with the event

Speaking exclusively to The Tab, Christian Samuel, a Cardiff student and Electric Ents promoter described the Facebook uptake as “outstanding”.

“We saw that the SSB doesn’t run anymore, so we set up the page and the event to gauge reaction.

“The uptake has been pretty outstanding, so we now fully plan on doing the event.

“We’re currently looking at different venues and hope to have that nailed down by the end of the week – somewhere as big as possible.

Since the SSB’s demise, Exeter’s rigs have gone to shit

“Once we’ve got the venue sorted, we’ll be looking to sort out acts. Connections won’t be a problem – we just had Clean Bandit play for us at Smack in Cardiff so we hope to bring in some big names.

“The amount we spend overall will depend on how much we end up spending on the venue, and then we’ll work out the ticket price once that’s sorted.

“I personally haven’t been to the SSB, but many of my friends have and said it was pretty epic. We’d seek to maintain the same dress code as the previous SSBs.”

The initial controversy of the event’s ‘tribal’ theme was totally blown over by-well, you know…

When asked whether his event would be true to the previous SSB’s values, Samuel said “to a degree. We’re well aware of the event’s past and think that’s there’s a line that shouldn’t be crossed when it comes to…certain antics.”

Samuel rejected the Guild assertion that punters should “carefully check the origins of an advertised event before parting with any money”.

“We’ve run student events all over the UK,” he said. “I don’t see why that would be an issue.”

“We understand why the uni can’t run SSB anymore, but there’s no reason why it can’t be outsourced.”

Here’s what they do in Cardiff by the way:

Smack. every Friday at DC from Smack Cardiff on Vimeo.

As for the charity aspect that was integral to the original SSB, he said that they would “contemplate giving some of the proceeds to charity, for example Cancer Research, or maybe even to the university.”

However, he “couldn’t say” what percentage of the profits would be donated.

 We need this back. In some form

The Safer Sex Ball was banned last year by the Guild, after it became embroiled in controversy surrounding two members of staff circulating CCTV footage of two students engaged in sexual activity during the event.

RAG replaced the SSB with the Prohibition Ball, which took place in February.

Emma, a student at the University said: “It could just be a joke someone has set up to make waves, it’s an odd timing as well because the SSB is usually in December.

“It’s a bit fishy if you ask me”.

What do you think about the new SSB? Tell us in the comments below.