1MONASH

By Joo Hoi Kang

Bandar Sunway– Monash University’s biggest event of the year, Monash Ball 2009 Vogue was held at Sunway Resort Hotel Grand Ballroom on 25 September 2009.

The publicity of the event started a month before.

Brochures and posters placed throughout the Monash Sunway Campus. E-mails and Facebook invitations sent out to Monash students.

The ticket booth opened outside the MUSA Lounge. The early birds enabled to grab the tickets at a price of Rm 80, cheaper than normal price of Rm 120.

Free dance classes were offered to attendees, organized by Executive Committee. The dance classes were an hour and a half long and offered four times before the ball throughout September.

The event

The theme of this year’s festivities was Vogue and drew approximately 1,000 guests.

Unlike the previous ones, this year’s Ball stacked with famous celebrities like Henry Golding and Sarah Lian as emcees and featured various performances from Diplomats of Drum to musicians like Ray Cheong Trio and Reshmonu.

Sarah Lian and Henry Golding emceeing during the Ball

Kelvin Tan, the Activities Chairperson said “it can be one of the best and most grand balls among colleges and universities in this area because of our engagement of famous celebrities’ performances.”

The event started after 7 p.m. lasted until midnight.

The Ball opened later than expected due to minor glitches. “At certain times of the event, there were major hiccups, but we tried out very best to cover it up so the audiences wouldn’t notice it. Behind the scenes, there were a lot of problems going on which was stressful but thrilling” said Kelvin.

Excuetive Committee members organizing the Ball

As the doors opened, the guests and VIPs entered and light show and Diplomats of Drum, a performance with mixture of instruments like Scottish bagpipes, Australian didgeridoo, Malay Gendang, the Indian Dhol and the Sitar commenced.

Diplomats of Drum performing with mixture of instruments

Emcees introduced, followed by the speech from Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor, MUSA President, Organising Chairperson and Malaysian comedian Andrew Netto.

Meanwhile, the dinner was served. Western set included prawns, salad and wanton as appetizer, grilled chicken with vegetables as main course and ice cream and sugar snap as dessert. Vegetarian set was available too.

Dinner being served

Attendees having dinner

The highlight of the event, Mr. and Ms. Monash nominees presented a fashion show and had a Q&A session. Gerrit Poel and Hanie Hidayah were selected as Mr. and Ms. Monash this year, beating rest of the competitive candidates.

Ms. and Mr. Monash walking together

Hanie said “it was actually very surprising because I didn’t expect it at all. All in all, I’m very happy to be Ms. Monash. I worked hard for it.”

Lucky draw session included many prizes like Omnia phone, a printer and iPod Shuffle. Kenneth Leong, an attendee said “it was the most exciting moment in the event because the prizes were excellent.”

Opening of dance floor by Ray Cheong Trio and Mr. and Ms. Monash prompted attendees to also participate.

Ms. Monash- Hanie having a great time with her friends

Esther, the first runner up in One in a Million sang, followed by Reshmonu, the winner of AIM 2004 for Best Male Vocals.

Reshmonu on the stage

“The whole event was pretty good, better than last year’s. I was very content by the effort student committees put in to this event by bringing properly spoken emcees and performers” Kenneth said.

However, Brandon Goh, another attendee said “it was below average. The whole processes were roughly the same. It was a very predictable flow. Also, the theme didn’t bring any effect to the event.”

For this event, Secret and Campus Plus sponsored and teamed up with many partners like JK Risk Management, Guess and Sony Music.

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