The Fairfield University Student Association will host the 2022 Presidential Ball Sept. 30 from 8 to 11 p.m. on the Bellarmine Lawn. For the first time since 2019, this event will be a singular event for all class years, as per a Sept. 14 email from FUSA. The theme of this year’s event is “Great Gatsby at Fairfield.” 

This year there were 2,800 tickets available to the Fairfield undergraduate community. This number was determined based on an analysis of previous years’ attendance in combination with health and safety standards, according to FUSA President Jordan Gale ‘23. 

Tickets went on sale for the Class of 2023 on Sept. 18 at 5 p.m. while tickets for all other classes went on sale at 5 p.m. on Sept. 17. The event sold out at 7:15 p.m. Students without tickets interested in attending can join the waitlist, which can also be found in the @fusa47 Instagram bio. 

Though the waitlist currently has “around 150 students” as of 6:20 p.m. on Sept. 20, according to Gale, the 2,800 attendee cap will remain. 

The Class of 2024 purchased the least amount of tickets with 585 bought, while the Class of 2026 bought the most with 819 tickets purchased. The Class of 2023 and 2025 bought 687 and 706 tickets, respectively, according to FUSA. 

Last year, Pres Ball returned after not occurring for two years due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Taking into account the University’s different mitigation strategies, Pres Ball 2021 was a two-part affair: the Classes of 2024 and 2025 had an earlier event from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., while the Classes of 2022 and 2023 had their event from 10 p.m. until midnight, according to a September 2021 Mirror article. Both events were held on Bellarmine Lawn, as per tradition. 

Students shared excitement and their experience purchasing tickets.

Senior Tess Morrissey expressed her excitement stating, “I am so excited about Pres Ball this year. The last time I attended was my freshman year in the Fall of 2019 and I had such a blast.” Morrissey continued, “because of the pandemic I am so excited for full normalcy this year!”

Junior Matthew Delaney commented, “The ticketing process for me went well, I didn’t need to wait in a line as I just logged into my account…and bought my ticket, easy as that.”

Delaney also stated that, “Pres Ball has always been an absolute blast of an event that’s held by the University. They do a great job with the event, the music, dancing, and taking photos with friends, all of it is just a great time and I can’t wait for it on September 30!”

Sophomore Christopher Pozzuto said he felt as though the new system for ticketing evEnue, “was a good addition for the school because all the events are organized in one place instead of navigating to get tickets through emailed events.”

Pozzuto continues, “I ended up getting tickets 20 minutes after they went on sale. I am looking forward to Pres Ball especially since last year they split up the classes. I believe FUSA will make this event memorable for everyone, especially the first year students.”

Sophomore Samantha Flores explained her experience purchasing tickets stating, “it was stressful because we knew it was limited tickets and the site was taking forever to load so I kind of accepted that I wasn’t going to get a ticket, which was upsetting because I didn’t get to go last year. But, since I got a ticket this year, I’m super excited to go!”

First-year Michael Peters was placed on the waitlist. He said, “when I found that there was a waitlist and an extremely limited amount of tickets I was extremely upset because I was in the middle of class when the website went live.”

Peters continues that “ by 6:05 p.m [is] when I went over to check if I can buy the tickets and I checked and it said I was on the waitlist. I was extremely disappointed because, you know, some kids were in class when it went live and it just went by so fast.”

Another first-year student Andrew Meja explained his experience with buying tickets explaining that when “I first went on the website online on my laptop but then it crashed and that’s why I went to my phone and then I was stuck in a virtual waiting room but I didn’t have class or anything I was free for the rest of the day so I just waited and around like 30 to 40 minutes. It just started working again so I just logged in and I got my tickets. It was pretty easy!” 

Meja continued to say that, “I feel excited because I heard this is like a big event in Fairfield so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen and yeah I’m just excited to be honest.”

For more information regarding the Presidential Ball be sure to look @fusa47 on Instagram.

 

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