From an experiment to a state’s ball

Media release: Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen is guest of honour at the 3rd Vienna Ball of Sciences • Student tickets are already sold out, regular tickets are expected to be soon • Aphrodisiac table decoration and virtual reality tours through Stonehenge highlights of programme 

Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen will be guest of honour at the 3rd Vienna Ball of Sciences on Saturday, January 28, at Vienna town hall.

Ball organizer Oliver Lehmann: “The attendance of Austria’s Head of State only two days after his inauguration is a great honour for this event. From being a brave experiment three years ago, Science ball now became a presidential state’s ball. With this, the excellence, cosmopolitanism and diversity of universities in Vienna are strongly becoming a central focus of notice.”

Alexander Van der Bellen, Doris Schmidauer and Oliver Lehmann at the Ball 2016 © SciBall/R.Ferrigato

The interest of the public is remaining very high, says Lehmann: “We expect the ball to be sold out again. The last tickets will be probably sold out within the next days. As last year, we will have around 3000 guests in total.” The sale of student tickets has already been ceased.

Lehmann: “There will be no box office at the ball evening, due to the great success of ticket sales. Only already paid tickets may be collected at the Town hall.” Lehmann suggests: “Waiting times may be reduced by collecting already ordered and paid tickets in our ball office, which is open Monday to Friday, until January 27, from 14.30 to 18.30 (Grünangergasse 4, 1010 Vienna, U1/U3 Stephansplatz).”

At the ball, Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen will be guest of mayor Michael Häupl and science councillor Andreas Mailath-Pokorny. Furthermore, all rectors of Viennese universities, private universities and universities of applied science announced their attendance at the ball, as well as the general directors of IST Austria and IIASA.

In addition to classic elements such as the opening polonaise and midnight quadrille there will be further highlights such as tempting table decoration with aphrodisiac plants, selected by the Institute of Pharmacognosy at Vienna University, the Academy-Disco, designed by students of the department of Figurative painting at the Academy of fine arts, and a virtual reality tour through Stonehenge and Carnuntum, organized by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology. An overview may be found on www.wissenschaftsball.at/en/the-program-2017/

Remaining tickets: www.wissenschaftsball.at/tickets/

Foto: Alexander Van der Bellen, Doris Schmidauer and Oliver Lehmann at the Vienna Ball of Sciences 2016 © SciBall/R.Ferrigato

With best regards

Oliver Lehmann

IIIII0IIIII

Oliver Lehmann
Head of the organizing committee