Stanzi Malan told Perdeby that “the fact that it is an entirely new event meant that participation was automatically lower since it’s unfamiliar”. However, she believes that Asterhof had maintained its number of participants as with previous years. “I was lucky enough to still have a sufficient amount of participants to go forward,” Malan noted. Step It UP differed from Serrie in that it took place on various Hatfield campus venues Step It UP replaces Serrie such as the Masker, Bok and Lier theatres and the Musaion, whereas Serrie took place in the recreation halls of participating residences. Step it UP’s tickets were limited to a number of 25 tickets per residence. According to Moodley, this was “due to the capacity of campus venues and aiming for a regulated environment…”. Serrie had allowed all members of a residence to watch performances, residence to watch each other’s performances, as well as any university students and members of the general public to be spectators and supporters. Residence gates and front doors would be left open for the duration of the prelims for attendees to access residence recreation halls.
To compensate for the limited number of tickets available for each residence, Asterhof and Erika residences each had more than one house performance on 1 May. Due to the large crowd that arrived at Asterhof’s second house performance, they also performed a third time to allow people who could not fit into their rec hall to see their performance. When asked why the event was only announced just over a week before it was set to happen, Moodley said that Stuku “received final approval from all executive members on the 24th of April”. The uncertainty pertaining to the event lead to a few residences not participating. “A few [residences] were cautious about spending time and money on an event that was not guaranteed at that point,” Moodley said. This year female residences Nerina, Jasmyn and Klaradyn, and male residences Kollege, Olienhout and Maroela did not take part in the competition. Kiaat and Inca were set to perform but dropped out of the competition in the week of prelims. When asked why Inca and Kiaat withdrew from the competition, Moodley explained that “[they had a] lack of participation”.
Kiaat First Year Guardian and Transformation House Committee member, Diokeng Seshweni confirmed that Kiaat pulled out on 2 May because they lacked participation. “After the whole debacle of Serrie perpetuating rape culture it was hard for Kiaat to get people to participate”
