'Animo Luxuriari'. Hmm. To some, a Latin tag might ring warning bells of the direst pretention, especially when accompanied with a blurb promising transcendental experiences and untold rapture, uncontrollable frenzy, and climactic euphoria. This being my third Johns Ball, I feel I’m qualified enough to accept that the college has earned the right to a typically arrogant Cantabridgian motto. But did the 2010 Ball live up to its predecessors?

Within the first thirty minutes, my girlfriend felt it her duty to inform me repeatedly about the ‘temperature issue’ - the Ball did not provide enclosed and heated tents, and most of the seating areas were outside. This entire layout was undermined further by the particularly cold summer’s evening, which was unfortunate, to be fair (but admittedly, the committee should have provided for the eventuality -– they’re lucky it didn’t rain).

As ever, queueing was smooth, and the strawberries, cream and Champers provided upon entry were a nice touch. As the guests walked in, however, they were confronted with an assortment of the cliched fairground tropes (hoopla, coconut shy, etc), which in my opinion do more for grandstanding than for ball-goers enjoyment. This was made pretty obvious by the general scramble for the hogroast, and the typically Johnian beer-filled punts in New Court.

In general, the food and drink were of exceptional quality, not to mention quantity. Tent after tent of drinks, ranging from exotic G&Ts to martinis, milkshakes, and Pimms, and food, ranging from crepes (filled with maltesers, honey and bananas) to delicious burgers handcrafted meticulously by d’Arry’s, made the ball a culinary triumph (ventro luxuriari?).

The aesthetics were good, but not entirely up to past standards; in 2008, Second Court boasted a miniature Eiffel tower. Its only prominent feature last night was a small arch, rainbow-lit and verging on the tacky. But many ball-goers endured the cupcake chairs and antler heads lining their hall, and the wooden taxicab in the First Court.

The headliners were a fantastic success, my personal favourite being the indie band ‘The Cheek’ (whose name was recently changed from ‘Cheeky Cheeky and the Nosebleeds’, as I recently found out on their Wikipedia page) – an odd but amusing scrap of trivia.

In light of Trinity Ball’s fireworkssuccess last night (with their surprising flamethrower effect), Johns had a lot to live up to last night. My personal favourite was the Hall of the Mountain King piece from the Peer Gynt suite (or, as is probably better known, that music from the Alton Towers entranceway) which was a fantastic success with hundreds of different types of fireworks going off at once, from twizzlers to cartwheels. Sadly, Johns fireworks seemed to lack a truly effective finale, and ended with the slight sense of not having... ended.

As a final verdict, I can honestly state that whilst enjoyable (as John's May Ball never fails to be), the 2010 Ball didn’t quite live up to the stratospherically high standards set by previous years.