Stomping Ground: Welly Ball Ends in "Crowd Crush"

Established in 2007, Welly Ball has since been a staple of the student calendar, raising over £33,000 for charity in 2022. However, students reported to The Saint that leaving this year’s ball quickly became a “dangerous” and “chaotic” situation as students were crammed into the exit hall and could not retrieve their coats.

Several students expressed that the disorganised mass of people attempting to exit Falside Mill, where the ball took place, created a high-risk situation that could have escalated into something more hazardous. Hundreds of attendees were packed tightly against each other in one room with little ability to move. “At the end it got really dangerous really quickly”, said fourth-year Shruti. “Imagine being squashed to the point where you physically cannot move, people’s elbows digging into your back, you’re struggling to breathe, and the committee is throwing coats at you!”

Ffion, also a fourth-year, felt similarly to Shruti. “People were squeezed together and confused about what was happening as the queue did not seem to be moving. People were barging through and being quite aggressive”, she said. Ffion also noted that the system for getting people out of the building was ineffective. “We could see the exit, but the security guards were only letting a certain number of people through at a time, meaning everyone was contained in one space and it became very claustrophobic. It was a big relief to get out, but this was after at least 25 minutes of being squeezed together”, she continued.

Ffion stated that the experience would discourage her from attending future Welly Balls. “For hundreds of students who have been drinking all night, to force them together into such a tight space could be very dangerous, and the exit plan must be reconsidered next year”, she said.

In their accounts to The Saint, students who attended the ball emphasised the anxiety caused by the amount of time they were kept at the venue before being able to get back to campus. Because of the security staff’s gradual release of attendees, some were kept longer than others. “To be stuck there for two hours with no way to leave — it was a triggering environment”, Shruti said.

Even those who were not seeking to retrieve their coats were inconvenienced by the wait. “I didn’t bring a jacket and my friend left theirs somewhere else because we anticipated some casual chaos”, explained Marc, a first-year. “The only thing I can say is that at the exit there was a rough horde of well-dressed people who were jostling and shouldering their way to the closed barriers — some managed to slip through but were forced back so we were just waiting there for 25 minutes watching that spectacle”.

In speaking to students, it seems that a lack of organisation of the cloakroom caused what Ava, a fourth-year student, labelled a “crowd crush”. Upon arrival, some students found that their belongings could not be accommodated at the coat-check. Ffion commented, “When we arrived, we were told that the coat locker had run out of capacity. Given the cold weather that is to be expected in November, surely they knew how many people would be bringing coats with them. We were told that we could leave our coats there, but they would take no responsibility for loss or damage. When we returned at the end, we found our coats amongst a pile of others, but they were covered in dirt”.

This lack of planning was most felt by students upon trying to leave. Many found themselves pushed into a crowd while they waited for their coats. Emma, a second-year student, noted that the end of the ball was “pandemonium. Our coats were auctioned off despite paying for them to be secured in the cloakroom and a few were even lost in the abyss of squashed Welly Ballers due to this”.

These sentiments were echoed by Rachael, a fourth-year student. She said, “There were queues and pushing to get peoples’ coats and belongings back. People had paid to have their coats looked after at the stand and the tickets attached to each item had been misplaced by people on both ends”.

Ava added, “personal belongings [were] treated with complete disrespect — at one point, the staff started holding up coats from afar and then throwing them to whoever raised their hands in the crowd … I’ve never seen an event organised as badly as the cloakroom at Welly Ball”.

Rachael explained that the “large crush of people in the exit foyer was exacerbated by the poor layout of the ball and the staff were shouting and pushing people back right at the front of the queue, rather than managing the issue further back. Their management of it all was a stressful experience that could definitely have been handled more effectively. The layout of the ball and the choice of staff definitely inflated this issue”.

Other students also felt that those organising the ball seemed unprepared for the number of guests. Ava commented, “The staff didn’t control this situation at all. There were no barriers and clearly not enough attention paid to capacity. Some staff started shouting at the crowd to move back, but the people close enough to hear this were completely trapped and unable to move”.

Emma added, “The venue staff as well as the Welly Ball staff were clearly not trained or prepared for the high volume of guests they had sold tickets to, which resulted in a huge crush of people upon exiting Falside Mill. The staff also yelled and shoved people in the crowd and physically blocked entrances, separating groups of friends”.

This lack of preparation was still notable even after leaving the venue itself. Emma added, “Upon finally getting the bus back to St Andrews after about two hours of chaos, I had to perch on half a seat as the buses were not managed correctly either. Whilst anticipating a night of fun, I left mildly disconcerted and disappointed”.

The Saint reached out to the Welly Ball Committee, who declined to comment.

Image by Emma Gatrell