From an impromptu student beat-boxing performance to an unconventional organizational team and large number of attendants, this year's Founders' Day Ball, "An American Affair," set new precedents while following time-honored traditions of the annual event.
Student Government Events Coordinator Ben Schorr said Saturday's ball was the most well attended in Founders' Day history.
The primary ticket sale on Jan. 28 sold out in two hours with 177 tickets requested on a wait list, The Eagle previously reported. After a bill passed by the Undergraduate Senate on Feb. 1 allocated more funds to the ball, the number of tickets for the event increased from 600 to 880.
The added tickets "doubled - literally doubled - the number of attendants for past Founders' Day Balls ... and there have been 72 balls," according to Jenny Leland, the Residence Hall Association's vice president of programming.
The Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium was the downtown venue for Saturday's soirée.
The venue also allowed the large crowd to fit comfortably.
"I'm glad that there's a lot of space and that we're not all crammed in together and dying of heat," said Gillian Davies, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Out of 70 different choices, the venue was handpicked based on price, capacity and the crucial factor of whether the Founders' Day Ball had been held there before, Schorr said.
"The tradition of Founders' Day Ball is to pick a new venue every year for the purpose of experiencing the whole city [of D.C.]," he said.
But to fund the event at the Mellon Auditorium, AU Student Government had to form a partnership with RHA, according to Schorr.
"Teaming up with RHA ... led to a great turnout and a great event," he said.
Leland organized the event with Schorr and said she was extremely pleased with the outcome.
"RHA has been a partner in the planning of the Founders' Day Ball in the past, but not to this extent," she said. "When Ben approached me, RHA was going to do entertainment and give-a-ways, but it evolved into a co-partnership, and the event turned into what it was tonight."
The event turned into a great success, according to Leland.
"I think it turned out very well ... The Mellon is a historic venue, and it is absolutely exquisite ... [The band] did a great mix ... and overall, I got such great responses from people," she said. "I'm so proud of how everything has been and how it's turned out."
The band Black Tie provided most of the entertainment for the evening, according to Schorr.
About halfway through the Ball, Sarah Franquemont, a sophomore in the School of International Service, added an unexpected element to the evening's entertainment when she got onstage and broke out in a beat-boxing performance.
Franquemont learned to beat box in her high school a cappella group and still does in the AU women's a cappella group, Treble in Paradise, according to Quinn Pregliasco, Franquemont's roommate and a sophomore in SIS and SPA.
As Franquemont entertained the crowd, a band member said into the microphone, "It takes a lot to hit those triple-beats."
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