Cape to Cairo - South African Society Charity Ball,

About the event

The Edinburgh University South African Society host an annual charity at the beginning of the year. It is being held on the 1^st of the February at the Waldorf Astoria – Caledonian and is a black tie event.

The theme is 'Cape to Cairo'. With a theme that will transport all the way from Cape Town, South Africa through to Cairo, Egypt.

From the moment you walk past the vintage, society branded, Land Rover Series parked outside the hotel, our guests are hosted to a dinner under the African sky. The format of the evening is: champagne reception, 3-course dinner, raffle/auction and then the dancefloor is set. Our balls are always kept adventurous, yet sophisticated.

For photos, the guest are spoiled for choice, with two dedicated photo areas. The first is a safari photo booths filled with props and leather couches. The second is a glamourous movie premier style branded screen.

We have chosen the Caledonian for two reasons. Firstly, the Caledonian venue has never been available to students before. The dining area, the Peacock Alley is an old railway station with old stone walls and dramatic glass skylight. The second reason is capacity. The ball has consistently sold out for the last 5 years and we would like to expand to 250 guests this year.

The charity we are supporting this year is the Avela Foundation, a non-profit that helps children with burn injuries on their road to a physical and psychological recovery. We strictly only support Southern African charities, last year raising over £4000.

Why should you sponsor?

There are a number of society balls hosted in Edinburgh every year. They all follow a very similar format and, to a large extent, deliver the same experience. The South African Society breaks this trend, offering a ball that is always unique. We use our background to provide adventurous, bold themes for our guests. What we hope is that your company would like to be aligned to these same traits.

We work exceptionally hard on our events for students at the university. As a result, our brand power has grown significantly over the years and we are one of, if not the best, at taking care of our guests. We host a number of events every year, such as the largest annual beer pong tournament in Edinburgh, but the ball is our flagship event. Our past sponsors have included from whiskey companies and the biggest clubs in Edinburgh.

With over 500 members and our event traffic on Facebook being in the 3-4k region, we have a significant student reach.

If you want to put your company logo on live Zebra outside the venue? We'll start making phone calls to the zoo. If you want something tamer, we can do branded napkins instead. Seriously though, we love partnering with companies and hope that you would like to join us in making this night one to remember. 

Graham Turnbull

My name is Graham Turnbull, a South African studying Mechanical Engineering at Edinburgh University. I am the secretary of the society and organise many of our events.

The most recent even we hosted was the largest beer pong tournament in Edinburgh. It consisted of 120 people, 5 kegs, 9 custom-cut olympic beer pong tables and fierce competition.

I am a bit of an optimist with palnning and will only host an event if we can be the best at it. Aside from the ball preperations, I am planning hosting the first and largest vollyball tournament in Edinburgh. I have recieved permission to unload 5 tonnes of sand into a pub's courtyard and am just waiting on finding an olympic vollyball net (let me know if you have one).

In the past, I have been treasurer for the society and work with a number of clubs regarding events. Let's chat about what the next big  event should be.

Contact the Organizer Contact the Organizer