Year after year, without fail.
Such is the popularity of an annual event that started as a meet-and-greet for royalty and has expanded into a two-night extravaganza celebrating all the princesses and the movies in which they’ve been feature.
But it isn’t an easy process, to be sure, especially when it comes to putting together a slew of travel arrangements for a busy group of people.
“We put them all on a plane, we had to fly them because it takes too long to get here by carriage,” said event organizer Fairy Godmother, who moonlighted as Princess Ball chair Elaine Crocker for the show. “We asked them to come out and they all agreed to come out, even though they’re all busy and have their own schedules.”
Their arrival and the show it brings is the culmination of a tremendous amount of planning and preparation that takes a small army of volunteers to pull off. The event acts as a fundraiser for the Moose Jaw Health Foundation (see sidebar).
“We have a committee of 11 and a few extra helpers, it takes us about six months to get this together,” Crocker said. “We all just sit around and meet and get ideas about which princess we want to feature, and this year it was an easy one since we all wanted to do Moana.”
To that end, the Heritage Inn ballroom was set up as half ocean and beach, half land, with blue contrasting with orange as a theme throughout.
The Ball has become a must-attend event for many local youngsters and their parents, some of whom enjoy the festivities just as much as their kids.
“It’s a beautiful turnout again, the little princesses are amazing and they sang along with Moana, they all know all the songs, every time we put on a song they know the words,” Crocker said. “They have so much fun and that’s what this is all about.”
Tickets for the event went on sale in December and the first night Saturday sold out with the swiftness, in part due to some patrons lining up in the wee hours of the morning to ensure they received their entry pass. No word on the level of vetting and clearance needed due to the presence of royalty, but with the amount of magic in the building, it was believed to be minimal.
“It was completely full (Saturday) night and just a bit short of a sellout (Sunday), so we’re pretty happy with that,” Crocker said.
Those who enjoyed the wide variety of activities – ranging from the always popular meet-and-greet to a candy table, scavenger hunt and all the photo ops in the world – can rest assured they’ll have another chance to do so next year. And the year after that…
“We’ll keep on rolling,” Crocker said. “As long as there are royal princesses, we’ll keep on holding the Little Princess Ball.”
