Big D and the Summer Ball are in hot and desperate competition to be the most sought after ticket of the summer term, as tickets still haven’t sold out for either event.
When asked which event the cash strapped student should pick, Ben Woolley, Big D Co-organiser highlighted its charitable nature and overall cheaper price, whilst Dan Walker, YUSU Democracy and Services Officer told Vision his event, Summer Ball, was in fact “the biggest end of year event around”.
“Both events should be fantastic, but the ball has dodgems,” Walker quipped.
Woolley defended Big D’s unusually slow ticket sales this year: “We decided to place a greater emphasis on things like the event launch and less on promotion of when the tickets would be online in order to reduce pressure on the YUSU servers,” he said. This tactic resulted in tickets sold ‘slowly but surely’, without “totally crippling the YUSU site,” he explained.
They agreed that the high profile end of term events will only be good for York, but considered York’s inherent limitations when trying to book major acts: money, and size.
Big D’s major problem, Woolley explained was, “we lack an individual venue that’s big enough. It’s all to do with money, and a bigger venue equates to more money to offer acts at the end of the day,” he said.
He continued, “we have to split the budget between them [the two main acts] so that there’s going to be quality acts spread across the event, and not just one huge act playing in Derwent.” This would prevent a situation where ticket-holders were left without a major act to watch.
Of the relative spread of music, both organisers seemed pretty pleased with their work. Dan Walker said he is happy with the “mix between DJ sets and full live band performances” and Big D co-organiser Ben Woolley, highlighted how the events “appeal to the diverse musical tastes that exist at this University”.
YUSU announced this year’s Summer Ball headline act as The Subways – known for their regular Summer festival presence – just as Big D tickets were close selling steadily in a video blog last Friday.
They join dubstep act Nero, indie group Darwin Deez, and young soul singer Dionne Bromfield, in a lineup with a different vibe to that of the Big D, whose line-up boasts solely club acts.