Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) has announced that, although Trinity Ball has been cancelled for the second consecutive year due to coronavirus restrictions, students will be offered an alternative in the form of an online Trinity Festival.
Trinity Festival will consist of an online live-streamed concert starring a lineup of talent from Trinity and beyond, preceded by an array of events that promise something for everyone.
Speaking to The University Times, TCDSU Ents officer Hugh McInerney spoke about the variety on offer within the event. “No matter what you want to do we have something for you”, he says. “We have the JCR, we have LawSoc, we have Players, we have a film panel with Film Soc and TFR [Trinity Film Review]. It’s all different events in different breakout rooms.”
McInerney’s aim is to create a pre-drinks to the concert that students “can dip in and out of freely”. “We just wanted to give people as much of an opportunity to enjoy themselves and meet new people [as possible]”, he says.
Since all in-person events were curtailed last March, despite high hopes of a return to some semblance of normality, societies and the students’ union have had to innovate in order to maintain engagement levels and provide a much-needed social life for Trinity’s students.
The TCDSU Ents team hosted an online concert at Christmas, which McInerney now realises was “fantastic”, but “wasn’t interactive enough”. “We wanted to fix it this time and make sure people could connect and actually get to chat to people”, he adds.
Some societies have thrived during the pandemic, almost in spite of the circumstances, and collaborating with them is McInerney’s way of highlighting their “resourcefulness” throughout the year, especially in terms of social events held over Zoom.
“We’ve seen what [DU] Players has done. It was fantastic how there were huge numbers of people in these massive calls getting involved, and we wanted to take inspiration from that, and also get Players, and other societies, involved as a nod to how brilliant their ideas were”, McInerney says.
“It’s been an awful, awful year in nearly every way for everyone but we tried our best to say: ‘Right look we can’t do what we want to do. We can’t give you a fraction of what it should be but we’re going to do the absolutely best we can.’”
Malaki, Nealo and Ailbhe Reddy have been named among the event’s headline acts. They will be joined by upcoming student artist Tertia, recent graduate Ellie O’Neill and Dublin-based band Big Sleep, whose pre-recorded performances will be set against the backdrop of some of Trinity’s best-known on-campus locations.
Students may mourn the absence of TBall, but one thing that won’t be missed is the pricey ticket. Trinity Festival will be free to attend and stream, and McInerney hopes the flexible format will encourage high attendance.
“During the concert from nine to 12, we’re going to have the Zoom still open so you can watch it and chat, have a few drinks with friends if you want over Zoom, but you could also just put a laptop on the table and stick it on at home with your housemates”, McInerney outlines, adding that the Ents team “want to make sure people have as many options to choose from as they can”.
McInerney, who is nearing the end of his stint as Ents officer, describes his term as “interesting and definitely not what [he] expected”. “It’s been such a tough year and I think out of the six sabbatical roles, Ents probably has been one of the most affected”, he admits..
Trinity Festival will begin at 6pm this Friday, with the main show kicking off at 9pm. Details and links will be publicised nearer the time.
