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Inaugural Balls Can Be a Pain

Mystique gives way to sardine-can ballrooms and endless coat-check lines

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 16, 2009 2:53 PM CST

(Newser) – Inaugural balls aren't the fairytale occasions people imagine, jaded Washington vet Carla Hall writes in the Los Angeles Times. Instead of a sea of couples gliding past the newly sworn-in president on the dance floor, the galas tend to be a bunch of tired people crammed into a ballroom straining to catch a glimpse of the quickly-passing-through first couple, she writes.

Inaugural ball first-timers almost inevitably leave disappointed, Hall writes. But even knowing what to expect doesn't mean many people are passing up the chance to go to one of this year's 10 official galas. "The inaugural ball is like going to senior prom," said an Obama fundraiser. "I know it will be anticlimactic, but there's no way I can miss it. I don't want to be the only person who didn't go to the ball."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (2)]

This Jan. 20, 1977 file photo shows President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn as they dance in front of the bandstand at the Inaugural Ball held at the Sheraton Park Hotel in Washington. (AP Photo/File)

A reveler at the Post Office Pavilion is carried above the crowd during one of the presidential inaugural balls for President Clinton in 1993. (AP Photo)

Kim Nesbitt-Good poses next to a life-size cardboard cutout of President-elect Barack Obama she plans to bring to an inaugural party. (AP Photo/Mike Derer)

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Almost everyone who shows up at a ball the first time, high hopes in tow, ends up with that forlorn is-this-all-there-is? I should know. I experienced it firsthand and chronicled others going through it.
- Carla Hall

Everybody wants to be Cinderella for one night. So when they hear 'ball' they lose their minds And the reality is that it's 1,000 people crammed into a hall which should only hold 600. It's just unpleasant. - Heather Podesta, a Washington lobbyist

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Inaugural Balls Can Be a Pain