A May Ball is a ball at the end of the academic year that takes place at any of the colleges of the University of Cambridge. They are elaborate and lavish formal affairs, requiring black tie or sometimes white tie, with ticket prices ranging from around £100 to as much as £640 for a pair of dining tickets at Trinity. May Ball budgets can exceed £200,000; a report by the student newspaper Varsity in 2016 found that the budget for the 2015 Trinity ball was £286,000. The balls are held in the colleges, starting around from 6-9 p.m. and lasting until well after dawn. "Survivors photographs" are taken of those who last until morning. Other colleges frequently hold winter balls, such as the popular Selwyn Snowball, who recently had acts such Tinchy Stryder and Mumford and Sons headlining.

A ball is a formal dance event often characterised by a banquet followed by a social dancing. Ball dancing emerged from formal dances during the Middle Ages and carried on through different iterations throughout succeeding centuries, such as the 17th century Baroque dance and the 18th century cotillion. Several variations exists such as the masquerade and debutante ball as well as the more modern prom.