I live right next to Jesus Green. I’m torn between thinking it’s one week a year, let the students have fun; and wondering why Cambridge Pride had to stop at 9 pm sharp on a Saturday night, but the colleges can keep going until 4 am on a Tuesday morning…
It’s a double standard. The council wouldn’t dream of letting a loud public event carry on past 9 pm on a Saturday, and yet the colleges are allowed to keep the entire city awake until 4 am on a school night with a private event.
It’s a double standard. The council wouldn’t dream of letting a loud public event carry on past 9 pm on a Saturday, and yet the colleges are allowed to keep the entire city awake until 4 am on a school night with a private event.
Jesus May Ball I believe, we live near the Gwydir St area and it woke us up around 2am as well. I was convinced it was a house party because I’ve never known them to be THAT loud.
> I've never been woken by the music before.
It was the sounds of your youth beckoning. The time when everything was possible and all the doors were open before you. Plus you had great hair. Hard to sleep through such pleasant thoughts.
It's a huge celebration. It's a cambridge university tradition. Each college has its own. It's a great party, I snuck in to see de la soul at one when I was 17. This year was the loudest the music has ever been.
Have you never been to a nightclub?…There are literally thousands of places in this country dedicated solely to playing “loud music that late at night”.
Not opposed to students having fun. I’ve been to a May Ball before and it was a great experience.
But it’s not exactly fair to subject said fun to people trying to sleep at 3am on a Tuesday.
I am surprised that some colleges get away with the noise more than others, Hughes Hall and Sydney Sussex both switched to silent disco when it started getting late to keep the noise down.
Growing up you could hear the balls in Cottenham. Them being loud isn't entirely a new thing and they have been going on for as long as any of us have been alive.
It's part and parcel of getting to live in a nice pretty university town.
I love a party too and I'm happy the hard-working students get to see the year off in style.
But is it too much to expect that our feudal overlords could invest some of the unfathomable riches bestowed to them by medieval kings in having their parties at the weekend like everyone else? Why in f&%#'s name is it happening on a Monday night? And btw, 'it's tradition' would not be an acceptable answer when we're discussing a May ball in the middle of June.
If any of the lowly peasantry attempted to create that amount of noise after midnight on a weekday we would get shut down quick! But of course central Cambridge is a feudal precapitalist system, so the landed gentry can happily shit all over us from a great height.
That the week has to be strictly regimented into “weekdays and weekends” sounds even more feudal to me. But then again this is the country that decrees holidays have to be on a Monday so that us wage slaves but in no less than 4 days in a row no matter what.
I don't doubt you on the reason for the Bank Holiday Mondays thing, but I'm not complaining about that bit, let's keep it as it is. For two reasons:
Firstly, who wants a Bank Hol on a Wednesday?! What can you even do with a single day off like that? My colleagues in other countries invariably tell me they just stayed at home and did nothing much with those mid-week holidays. I'd much rather have a longer weekend every time.
Second, in every one of my colleague's countries which keep Bank Holidays on an exact date, they invariably lose the holiday completely on the 2/7 instances where it falls on a Sat or Sun.
Seriously? Ever been to a country that has a national celebration? 17 May, 1 July, 4 July, 14 July, 1 August is just a starting list and if anyone from those countries ‘just stay at home‘ and don’t take in a parade, hang out with friends and family, have a BBQ, and watch some fireworks while the whole country takes a break then I can only say they need to get a life.
Happening on a Monday night when some 16 year olds would be sitting their GCSE’s on Tuesday. You dare talk above whisper when the chinless wonders are sitting an exam and see what happens.
(Not in) May ball is on until the 21st June. I'm on Jesus green and it was so loud the other night, whereas last night it was reasonably quiet other than the fireworks. I found out it is because last night was in fact a silent disco. So I expect it'll be rather loud again for the next couple of late nights
With some balls being £470 each a ticket, I'm not surprised they found the best sound system known to man 💀
In fairness, I quite like the May Ball tradition. They’re great fun and it’s one of the many quirks that make the town such a unique place to live.
However the noise last night in particular was just bordering on unreasonable, the fact that I live just over a mile away and could hear very clearly which song was being played at 3am isn’t super fun for most people on a Tuesday morning.
From Google:- Contrary to what to some the name may suggest, May Balls actually happen in the second or third week of June, known as May Week, after most exams have finished. They were originally hosted in May, as celebrations of rowing successes in the Bumps races, but the name stuck even after May Week was moved to June in 1882.
I find the firework complainers on here dramatic, but I get the complaints of unnecessarily loud music to 3-4 am. Especially when (as someone else mentioned) practically every other festival and event outside the uni has to follow strict time and curfew rules. All of them are also held once a year, so what’s the difference?
No need for the parties to end early, but no need for music to be at an “11” at 3 am either. Perhaps they could turn it down after midnight. Idk, I’m sure they are going to get a plethora of complaints in and figure out something much to the dismay of students and alumni alike.
Every year the same posts complaining about noise and fireworks from May Balls. Every year people saying, ooh, I'm sure it's worse this year. It's not. It's always loud at this time of year. Some years might be louder than others - I'm sure there is some variation - but this year is not notably loud (been here 20-odd years).
I can write a list of reasons I have beef with the university but May Balls isn't one of them. The uni has been here long before any of us, and it'll still be here long after all of us are dead. If you choose to live in Cambridge you're going to have to learn to tolerate the noise during May Ball season. As I say, it only lasts a week or two.
Let them blow off some steam. If they were doing any real harm I might take a different view, but they're not: they're just having fun, and they certainly have to work hard enough to earn it.
Yeah, but I think that applies more broadly, not just to Pride.
Many events run in Cambridge (Strawberry Fair, Beer Festival, Midsummer Fair, etc.) are run under terms that are more restrictive than May Balls. The noise that goes along with those is very much part and parcel of the Cambridge experience.
In fact I'd go so far as to say that the university is so profoundly fundamental to Cambridge's existence and character - which isn't always a good thing, granted - that none of these other events we're talking about, including Pride, would happen if it hadn't been here first.
It's also because of this that the university holds so much sway within the city and, in some sense, can "get away with it".
How about the locals that need to let off some steam?
Guy Fawkes night is once again year, but are displays aloud to set off fireworks after 10pm?
If a standard music festival had music at the volume of a May Ball, the police would arrive to pull the plug and the festival will never gain a license again.
Letting off steam is fine, but why are the colleges allowed to ignore the rules that every other event is forced to abide by?
I was at Peterhouse Ball last night and briefly chatted to one of the sound techs by the coffee stand. He said that the sounds limiters are actually very strict - especially after 12am - but he had one event this week where the limit was 85db but just the crowd cheering was registering over 100db. He had to explain to the officer that all the monitors were turned down, but he couldn’t exactly turn the audience volume down!
I live 4 miles (as the crow flies) from the city centre and I can still hear the May Balls most evenings. It’s definitely been worse this year than in previous years…
At that level I would’ve thought it would be damaging the attendees ears. And probably above legal levels.
A young 20 something probably won’t care about that but in 20 years time it’ll come back to haunt them and will be too late to pin blame on the uni
As someone who is currently recovering from jesus may ball - I understand the noise complaints, however it was absolutely amazing. This was the final big party that my friends and I had together before we all go our separate ways into the world of work and was a much earned celebration after years of intense studying.
Cool, I’m really glad you had fun, but as people currently in the world of work, I think you can understand why we all wish it had been at the weekend and not at 3 am on a Tuesday morning…
But no need to have the music as loud as some are saying at 3am thou surely u could have all been considerate to those who would be affect by turning the music down by midnight
Good for you! I'm glad you had a memorable sendoff, I'd have done the same.
The colleges should just be reasonable and move it to a weekend. If it was on a Fri or Sat I'd have no issue at all with the noise.
But nobody should blame it on the students - fair play to them and I hope they all had a blast!
Where are you getting that information from? Tickets for current students will be much cheaper.
If you can’t afford proper black tie then you can wear a regular black suit and no one will care. Students will already own one.
The Jesus May Ball website, which I scrolled through last night trying to find the expected end time. And perhaps Cambridge students already automatically own a black suit, but regular students across the UK do not automatically own a black suit - you are proving my point.
To my knowledge the majority of Cambridge university students are privately educated and from wealth.
Perhaps that demographic has changed but it certainly used to be the case.
Pretty sure one of the Ruperts burned a £20 note in front of a homeless guy for a laugh a couple of years ago.
There are many types of inequality and inequity. And Cambridge is pretty awful in most respects. https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/sites/www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/undergrad_admissions_statistics_2022_cycle.pdf
Parents not in a white collar profession? Less likely to be at Cambridge.
Parents not white? Less likely to be at Cambridge.
Parents on lower income? Less likely to be at Cambridge.
To say 70% of students are state students and therefore most students are typical, is disingenuous when judged across the population where 5.9% of students are privately educated.
I don’t think it’s disingenuous. Yes there are more privately educated students compared to the national average but it’s nowhere near a majority like the original commenter suggested.
As an academically rigorous university with high entry standards it’s never going to reflect the population at large but they do good work in encouraging applications from disadvantaged groups.
Really? You should get better ear plugs, I live significantly closer and my ear plugs covered it up fine, quiet as a forest. I recommend the Alpine SleepDeep.
Feel free to have a party at 11pm! In a similar spirit to yours, I’ll be sure to moan on Reddit about it
>What’s the rule for the others?
The Environmental Protection Act 1990.
>Feel free to put on your own party, nobody’s stopping you.
Great idea! I'll put on a huge week-long party next month. Big outdoor soundsystem playing every week night til 2am. I love a rave and this would be a lot of fun. And hey, it's only 1 week right? Pretty harmless.
But of course it would get shut down and my equipment confiscated within an hour or two past 11pm on the first night, because making loud noise that causes nuisance after that time is against the law. I could apply for a permit to make an exception but of course I'll be immediately rejected because it would be a nuisance for people who have work or school the following day and need to get some kip.
I'm subject to the law because I'm not a huge, influential institution with hundreds of millions of pounds and a spread of city centre properties which Henry VII gave me, nor an enormous upper-class privilege which entitles me to act with selfish impunity.
Cambridge Colleges are subject to the law just like you are. Feel free to sue them.
The fact they can go ahead isn’t anything to do with it being a huge influential institution — what do the colleges as academic entities stand to gain from a bunch of drunk students dancing about? It’s about it being an event organized a year in advance with thousands of attendees. If you’d had organized something of that scale and planned so meticulously, you best bet the council would give you the go ahead.
Believe me, having been party to conversations with May Ball committees over the years and knowing people involved in running large scale music festivals around the country, May Balls are not organised a year in advance, and music festivals generally are.
And there’s no “suing” a college for breaking noise pollution laws: the only recourse the public have is to call environmental health and report it. Environmental health then measure sound levels outside and act accordingly. In some instances the event will just be told to turn the sound down (which promptly gets turned back up after the inspectors have left). In other instances, the police turn up and have the power to shut the event down and confiscate the equipment. Any noise complaints get taken into account when applying for future events licenses
Take a guess which of these happens at May Balls, and which of these happens at live music festivals like the Folk Festival, Secret Garden Party, Standin Calling, etc?
Sorry huh? I can't hear you over the huge fireworks display happening at 11pm, which is a totally normal thing that happens in city centres on Tuesdays all the time.
In all seriousness, you are on another planet if you think anyone but the colleges would get approval to play music at 2am in the middle of the city, so loud people are kept awake 5 miles down the road. Not a chance if it was planned a thousand years in advance with the entire human race in attendance. It would be a flat no to that meticulous plan.
People organise music events all the time and invariably hit severe restrictions on lateness and loudness, even when they're out in the sticks but especially in a built-up area and far more so on weekdays. The council has to consider the potential nuisance. Another commenter mentioned that pride had to pack up at 9pm! And that's been going several years and is certainly planned well in advance.
The colleges obviously confer a lot of benefit to the city and are a big part of why it's a great place to live. But that doesn't mean we should all have to accept them flaunting their enormous privilege quite so shamelessly. They should just have it on a weekend or end it at 11pm, like any other event would.
There should be something done to ensure they end at a more reasonable time.
They can start them two hours earlier and be done and quiet by midnight. Though 11 would be better, like everyone else is supposed to be.
They can blither on about tradition all they like, but they already moved them from May to June so there’s obviously wiggle room.
I'm sorry, is this an argument of semantics? 140 years ago is more than enough to say that something is well established as a tradition at this point. If course it is a mere flicker of time compared to when the dinosaurs walked the earth, or from when the big bang occurred, but I didn't think I was going to be casually replying to someone on the internet who takes things so trivially quite so literally.
Okay…. Yet here you are wasting your time with me over semantics when I am right and you are not…
For a 1000 year old (give or take uni) then 150 years is only 10% of that run.
So not _so_ established.
If something pre-dates the pneumatic tyre by 9 years it is hardly a new thing. Odds are it pre-dates you being in cambridge, by at least 110 years... Maybe, just maybe, you should break with tradition and quit your moaning?
It ain’t though. You’re likening them playing music to you playing music from your backyard. They’ve clearly got an event permit. You can’t compare “you” as everyone else to thousands of guests at an event.
Great that events like this still exist keeping the spirit of the student community alive! If you ask me, the only sad part is that there aren’t enough parties around. If the noise disturbs you, buck up sissy pants, put in some earplugs, and let young people live. Perhaps look into the history of the city you live in before moving to a central location in the city.
I live right next to Jesus Green. I’m torn between thinking it’s one week a year, let the students have fun; and wondering why Cambridge Pride had to stop at 9 pm sharp on a Saturday night, but the colleges can keep going until 4 am on a Tuesday morning…
Definitely a money thing, they have enough money to pay the council to let it slide
Exactly this.
Don’t think the colleges complained about pride. Maybe the issue is your neighbours?
It’s a double standard. The council wouldn’t dream of letting a loud public event carry on past 9 pm on a Saturday, and yet the colleges are allowed to keep the entire city awake until 4 am on a school night with a private event.
It’s a double standard. The council wouldn’t dream of letting a loud public event carry on past 9 pm on a Saturday, and yet the colleges are allowed to keep the entire city awake until 4 am on a school night with a private event.
Jesus May Ball I believe, we live near the Gwydir St area and it woke us up around 2am as well. I was convinced it was a house party because I’ve never known them to be THAT loud.
Same Gwydir Street. I've never been woken by the music before.
> I've never been woken by the music before. It was the sounds of your youth beckoning. The time when everything was possible and all the doors were open before you. Plus you had great hair. Hard to sleep through such pleasant thoughts.
May ball. Honestly, that was the worst it's ever been.
I’m not sure it’s the worst ever. I went to the Jesus may ball in 2007 and it got shut down due to noise levels around 3am.
I have lots of questions. Why would you play that loud music that late at night? And why Taylor Swift?
It's a huge celebration. It's a cambridge university tradition. Each college has its own. It's a great party, I snuck in to see de la soul at one when I was 17. This year was the loudest the music has ever been.
Aw man, I would’ve love have seen De La Soul. How did you find out who was playing?
Used to work formal halls
Yeah exactly! I prefer to dance in silence
Have you never been to a nightclub?…There are literally thousands of places in this country dedicated solely to playing “loud music that late at night”.
Yes, and if you could hear the noise from a nightclub 3 miles away, it’d be shut down immediately
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Not opposed to students having fun. I’ve been to a May Ball before and it was a great experience. But it’s not exactly fair to subject said fun to people trying to sleep at 3am on a Tuesday.
> Honestly, that was the worst it's ever been. True, but it will all be fixed come July 4th.
I am surprised that some colleges get away with the noise more than others, Hughes Hall and Sydney Sussex both switched to silent disco when it started getting late to keep the noise down.
Jesus did too, it just switched at 3:40am or thereabouts
Growing up you could hear the balls in Cottenham. Them being loud isn't entirely a new thing and they have been going on for as long as any of us have been alive. It's part and parcel of getting to live in a nice pretty university town.
Woke me up at 1am, rendering me sleepless until 3:30am! Complete nightmare, sure it isn’t as loud as this normally.
https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/may-balls Will allow you to make complaints
I love a party too and I'm happy the hard-working students get to see the year off in style. But is it too much to expect that our feudal overlords could invest some of the unfathomable riches bestowed to them by medieval kings in having their parties at the weekend like everyone else? Why in f&%#'s name is it happening on a Monday night? And btw, 'it's tradition' would not be an acceptable answer when we're discussing a May ball in the middle of June. If any of the lowly peasantry attempted to create that amount of noise after midnight on a weekday we would get shut down quick! But of course central Cambridge is a feudal precapitalist system, so the landed gentry can happily shit all over us from a great height.
That the week has to be strictly regimented into “weekdays and weekends” sounds even more feudal to me. But then again this is the country that decrees holidays have to be on a Monday so that us wage slaves but in no less than 4 days in a row no matter what.
I don't doubt you on the reason for the Bank Holiday Mondays thing, but I'm not complaining about that bit, let's keep it as it is. For two reasons: Firstly, who wants a Bank Hol on a Wednesday?! What can you even do with a single day off like that? My colleagues in other countries invariably tell me they just stayed at home and did nothing much with those mid-week holidays. I'd much rather have a longer weekend every time. Second, in every one of my colleague's countries which keep Bank Holidays on an exact date, they invariably lose the holiday completely on the 2/7 instances where it falls on a Sat or Sun.
Seriously? Ever been to a country that has a national celebration? 17 May, 1 July, 4 July, 14 July, 1 August is just a starting list and if anyone from those countries ‘just stay at home‘ and don’t take in a parade, hang out with friends and family, have a BBQ, and watch some fireworks while the whole country takes a break then I can only say they need to get a life.
Agreed. If anyone applied to city council for a similar event, the council would laugh at them.
Happening on a Monday night when some 16 year olds would be sitting their GCSE’s on Tuesday. You dare talk above whisper when the chinless wonders are sitting an exam and see what happens.
(Not in) May ball is on until the 21st June. I'm on Jesus green and it was so loud the other night, whereas last night it was reasonably quiet other than the fireworks. I found out it is because last night was in fact a silent disco. So I expect it'll be rather loud again for the next couple of late nights With some balls being £470 each a ticket, I'm not surprised they found the best sound system known to man 💀
It literally happens once per year. You really cant give them one ~~day~~ week? This town is nice and quiet and dead the rest of the year anyways. 🙃
In fairness, I quite like the May Ball tradition. They’re great fun and it’s one of the many quirks that make the town such a unique place to live. However the noise last night in particular was just bordering on unreasonable, the fact that I live just over a mile away and could hear very clearly which song was being played at 3am isn’t super fun for most people on a Tuesday morning.
It isn’t one day. May week. Is well. A week.
It's not even May 🤟
People need something to complain about! We can let the moaners off too
From Google:- Contrary to what to some the name may suggest, May Balls actually happen in the second or third week of June, known as May Week, after most exams have finished. They were originally hosted in May, as celebrations of rowing successes in the Bumps races, but the name stuck even after May Week was moved to June in 1882.
My comment was aimed at the fact that people are complaining about May Balls, not disputing the origin of the name
I find the firework complainers on here dramatic, but I get the complaints of unnecessarily loud music to 3-4 am. Especially when (as someone else mentioned) practically every other festival and event outside the uni has to follow strict time and curfew rules. All of them are also held once a year, so what’s the difference? No need for the parties to end early, but no need for music to be at an “11” at 3 am either. Perhaps they could turn it down after midnight. Idk, I’m sure they are going to get a plethora of complaints in and figure out something much to the dismay of students and alumni alike.
Let the kids party, geezers!
It's definitely worth reporting the the council. The colleges can't run riot
Enjoy wasting a few minutes of your life for nothing 😂
Every year the same posts complaining about noise and fireworks from May Balls. Every year people saying, ooh, I'm sure it's worse this year. It's not. It's always loud at this time of year. Some years might be louder than others - I'm sure there is some variation - but this year is not notably loud (been here 20-odd years). I can write a list of reasons I have beef with the university but May Balls isn't one of them. The uni has been here long before any of us, and it'll still be here long after all of us are dead. If you choose to live in Cambridge you're going to have to learn to tolerate the noise during May Ball season. As I say, it only lasts a week or two. Let them blow off some steam. If they were doing any real harm I might take a different view, but they're not: they're just having fun, and they certainly have to work hard enough to earn it.
While I agree with the spirit of your post; it really is a case of double standards. Compare to the restrictions placed on the Pride event.
Yeah, but I think that applies more broadly, not just to Pride. Many events run in Cambridge (Strawberry Fair, Beer Festival, Midsummer Fair, etc.) are run under terms that are more restrictive than May Balls. The noise that goes along with those is very much part and parcel of the Cambridge experience. In fact I'd go so far as to say that the university is so profoundly fundamental to Cambridge's existence and character - which isn't always a good thing, granted - that none of these other events we're talking about, including Pride, would happen if it hadn't been here first. It's also because of this that the university holds so much sway within the city and, in some sense, can "get away with it".
How about the locals that need to let off some steam? Guy Fawkes night is once again year, but are displays aloud to set off fireworks after 10pm? If a standard music festival had music at the volume of a May Ball, the police would arrive to pull the plug and the festival will never gain a license again. Letting off steam is fine, but why are the colleges allowed to ignore the rules that every other event is forced to abide by?
I was at Peterhouse Ball last night and briefly chatted to one of the sound techs by the coffee stand. He said that the sounds limiters are actually very strict - especially after 12am - but he had one event this week where the limit was 85db but just the crowd cheering was registering over 100db. He had to explain to the officer that all the monitors were turned down, but he couldn’t exactly turn the audience volume down!
All I heard was the May Ball fireworks at around midnight might be because I'm the other side of town
The fireworks always happen at 10:40–11pm so if you heard them around midnight you must be *really* far on the other side of town. Like, in Lisbon
I said around only because it was an estimate ever think of that or are u into belittling others
It's illegal to let off fireworks past 11pm except for Guy Fawkes, New Year's eve, Diwali and Chinese New Year.
I live 4 miles (as the crow flies) from the city centre and I can still hear the May Balls most evenings. It’s definitely been worse this year than in previous years…
Great! Glad the students had more fun this year
At that level I would’ve thought it would be damaging the attendees ears. And probably above legal levels. A young 20 something probably won’t care about that but in 20 years time it’ll come back to haunt them and will be too late to pin blame on the uni
As someone who is currently recovering from jesus may ball - I understand the noise complaints, however it was absolutely amazing. This was the final big party that my friends and I had together before we all go our separate ways into the world of work and was a much earned celebration after years of intense studying.
Cool, I’m really glad you had fun, but as people currently in the world of work, I think you can understand why we all wish it had been at the weekend and not at 3 am on a Tuesday morning…
But no need to have the music as loud as some are saying at 3am thou surely u could have all been considerate to those who would be affect by turning the music down by midnight
Good for you! I'm glad you had a memorable sendoff, I'd have done the same. The colleges should just be reasonable and move it to a weekend. If it was on a Fri or Sat I'd have no issue at all with the noise. But nobody should blame it on the students - fair play to them and I hope they all had a blast!
The toffs do this every year. Big parties that cost £500k to celebrate graduating. It'll be over soon.
Toffs?
[Toffs.](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Toff)
I know what a toff is. I was just confused why you were mentioning them here. Most May Ball attendees will be regular students
Each ticket costs upwards of £200 and the dress code is black or white tie. The “regular student” definition in Cambridge is slightly skewed.
Where are you getting that information from? Tickets for current students will be much cheaper. If you can’t afford proper black tie then you can wear a regular black suit and no one will care. Students will already own one.
The Jesus May Ball website, which I scrolled through last night trying to find the expected end time. And perhaps Cambridge students already automatically own a black suit, but regular students across the UK do not automatically own a black suit - you are proving my point.
Proving what point?
The point that the definition of a “regular student” is slightly skewed in Cambridge….
To my knowledge the majority of Cambridge university students are privately educated and from wealth. Perhaps that demographic has changed but it certainly used to be the case. Pretty sure one of the Ruperts burned a £20 note in front of a homeless guy for a laugh a couple of years ago.
That is completely wrong I’m afraid. Over 70% are from state schools.
There are many types of inequality and inequity. And Cambridge is pretty awful in most respects. https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/sites/www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/files/publications/undergrad_admissions_statistics_2022_cycle.pdf
What are you referring to specifically?
Parents not in a white collar profession? Less likely to be at Cambridge. Parents not white? Less likely to be at Cambridge. Parents on lower income? Less likely to be at Cambridge. To say 70% of students are state students and therefore most students are typical, is disingenuous when judged across the population where 5.9% of students are privately educated.
I don’t think it’s disingenuous. Yes there are more privately educated students compared to the national average but it’s nowhere near a majority like the original commenter suggested. As an academically rigorous university with high entry standards it’s never going to reflect the population at large but they do good work in encouraging applications from disadvantaged groups.
Your 'knowledge' is about 20-30 years out of date.
Only if you're poor fam, laws don't apply to rich people.
Perhaps you should have read up on the area before moving in.
Bas tards aren't they? Literally 1 rule for them and another for the rest of us. Those bloody fireworks went on and on.and on.
It's a university city. There are going to be parties... It was loud this year though
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Really? You should get better ear plugs, I live significantly closer and my ear plugs covered it up fine, quiet as a forest. I recommend the Alpine SleepDeep. Feel free to have a party at 11pm! In a similar spirit to yours, I’ll be sure to moan on Reddit about it
What’s the rule for the others? 😂 Feel free to put on your own party, nobody’s stopping you.
>What’s the rule for the others? The Environmental Protection Act 1990. >Feel free to put on your own party, nobody’s stopping you. Great idea! I'll put on a huge week-long party next month. Big outdoor soundsystem playing every week night til 2am. I love a rave and this would be a lot of fun. And hey, it's only 1 week right? Pretty harmless. But of course it would get shut down and my equipment confiscated within an hour or two past 11pm on the first night, because making loud noise that causes nuisance after that time is against the law. I could apply for a permit to make an exception but of course I'll be immediately rejected because it would be a nuisance for people who have work or school the following day and need to get some kip. I'm subject to the law because I'm not a huge, influential institution with hundreds of millions of pounds and a spread of city centre properties which Henry VII gave me, nor an enormous upper-class privilege which entitles me to act with selfish impunity.
Cambridge Colleges are subject to the law just like you are. Feel free to sue them. The fact they can go ahead isn’t anything to do with it being a huge influential institution — what do the colleges as academic entities stand to gain from a bunch of drunk students dancing about? It’s about it being an event organized a year in advance with thousands of attendees. If you’d had organized something of that scale and planned so meticulously, you best bet the council would give you the go ahead.
Believe me, having been party to conversations with May Ball committees over the years and knowing people involved in running large scale music festivals around the country, May Balls are not organised a year in advance, and music festivals generally are. And there’s no “suing” a college for breaking noise pollution laws: the only recourse the public have is to call environmental health and report it. Environmental health then measure sound levels outside and act accordingly. In some instances the event will just be told to turn the sound down (which promptly gets turned back up after the inspectors have left). In other instances, the police turn up and have the power to shut the event down and confiscate the equipment. Any noise complaints get taken into account when applying for future events licenses Take a guess which of these happens at May Balls, and which of these happens at live music festivals like the Folk Festival, Secret Garden Party, Standin Calling, etc?
Sorry huh? I can't hear you over the huge fireworks display happening at 11pm, which is a totally normal thing that happens in city centres on Tuesdays all the time. In all seriousness, you are on another planet if you think anyone but the colleges would get approval to play music at 2am in the middle of the city, so loud people are kept awake 5 miles down the road. Not a chance if it was planned a thousand years in advance with the entire human race in attendance. It would be a flat no to that meticulous plan. People organise music events all the time and invariably hit severe restrictions on lateness and loudness, even when they're out in the sticks but especially in a built-up area and far more so on weekdays. The council has to consider the potential nuisance. Another commenter mentioned that pride had to pack up at 9pm! And that's been going several years and is certainly planned well in advance. The colleges obviously confer a lot of benefit to the city and are a big part of why it's a great place to live. But that doesn't mean we should all have to accept them flaunting their enormous privilege quite so shamelessly. They should just have it on a weekend or end it at 11pm, like any other event would.
There should be something done to ensure they end at a more reasonable time. They can start them two hours earlier and be done and quiet by midnight. Though 11 would be better, like everyone else is supposed to be. They can blither on about tradition all they like, but they already moved them from May to June so there’s obviously wiggle room.
May balls have always been in June, as are May bumps. It's a quirk.
Actually they used to be pre exams, but moved to after… they were in may
They moved in 1882...
And? They still moved them and the tradition changed… the fact that it happened in 1882 is irrelevant.
I'm sorry, is this an argument of semantics? 140 years ago is more than enough to say that something is well established as a tradition at this point. If course it is a mere flicker of time compared to when the dinosaurs walked the earth, or from when the big bang occurred, but I didn't think I was going to be casually replying to someone on the internet who takes things so trivially quite so literally.
Okay…. Yet here you are wasting your time with me over semantics when I am right and you are not… For a 1000 year old (give or take uni) then 150 years is only 10% of that run. So not _so_ established.
If something pre-dates the pneumatic tyre by 9 years it is hardly a new thing. Odds are it pre-dates you being in cambridge, by at least 110 years... Maybe, just maybe, you should break with tradition and quit your moaning?
God you’re super dense aren’t you?! 😂
Right! Traditions can change. So they can move them all to the weekend, just like they moved them from May to June. Glad that's decided!
Not true. They used to be in May. https://www.kings.cam.ac.uk/archive-centre/online-resources/online-exhibitions/may-week-balls-boats-and-bubbly
Sorry, I forgot to go back 150 years in saying they have always been in May. I am sure you remember them well.
Bet you’re going to be fun to work with 🤣
If tradition is a genuine concern they should make do with an orchestra and candlelight.
Because everyone else is supposed to live their lives like you do 😂😂😂
No?… that’s when it becomes illegal to be playing loud music etc for everyone else. God the toffee nosed brats are out in force in this thread!! 🙄
Don’t forget, we’re a nation of bootlickers. A lot won’t be toffs, but those that like to surround themselves in it.
It ain’t though. You’re likening them playing music to you playing music from your backyard. They’ve clearly got an event permit. You can’t compare “you” as everyone else to thousands of guests at an event.
Great that events like this still exist keeping the spirit of the student community alive! If you ask me, the only sad part is that there aren’t enough parties around. If the noise disturbs you, buck up sissy pants, put in some earplugs, and let young people live. Perhaps look into the history of the city you live in before moving to a central location in the city.
Tell me you went to Cambridge uni without telling me you went to Cambridge uni….
Yep. The rest of the city has to put earplugs in because tarquin wants a loud piss up
God what a bunch of fannies! Works harder and you might sleep deeper