This year’s Trinity Ball has been cancelled, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Ents Officer Judith Robinson has confirmed.
Speaking to The University Times, Robinson said: “Following the announcement today that was made the Taoiseach that colleges will close, and the extension will be made until the 19th of April, obviously that means that Trinity Ball will be unable to go ahead.”
“Students will be given a full refund if they have purchased tickets”, she added.
“This is very unfortunate as we had a fantastic lineup and a massive amount of work was put into preparing for the ball”, she said, “but it is for the best, as everyone’s health and wellbeing is what’s most important at the moment”.
Last week, when contacted by The University Times, Trinity media relations officer Aoife Carr said that “no decision has been taken as yet” on whether the ball would proceed.
Robinson said Trinity will make a statement this week announcing the cancellation of the ball.
This year’s line-up for Trinity Ball included Eat Everything, Rejjie Snow and DJ Seinfield, and was to be headlined by Tinie Tempah, who also played at the ball in 2010.
Online tickets for this year’s Trinity Ball sold out within two hours. This year’s ticket sales came in behind last year’s, when they’d sold out within an hour of going on sale.
The line-up for Trinity Ball was leaked accidentally on Facebook by Rejjie Snow, hours before the official line-up.
Tickets for the ball were priced again at €91, after they increased from €87 last year.
The announcement comes in the wake of a series of major steps the College has taken to dampen the effects of the coronavirus. Last week, residents of Trinity accommodation were ordered to vacate within 48 hours. The decision was met with outrage, and Trinity quickly backtracked.
Colleges are to remain closed until at least April 19th, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said today.
In an address, Varadkar said the measures implemented on March 12th – which saw schools, colleges and creches all over the country shut down – have been extended until April 19th.
Trinity suspended lectures on March 10th, but opted to continue holding in-person tutorials, laboratory sessions and seminars. The following day, Varadkar announced that all schools and colleges would be closing until March 29th.
