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Eliot House residents adorned in black tie attire will flock to their courtyard next week — complete with an ice sculpture and live jazz band — to sip champagne and feast on hors d’oeuvres. Eliot’s esteemed annual spring formal, known as Fête, triggers a bustling market of ticket resales surpassing $100 each.

Just a stone’s throw away this Friday, students attending Bacchanalia, Lowell House’s spring formal, will wind their way through wine towers and “firebreathers” — according to emails sent to House mailing lists.

With an advertised “$45K budget,” the cost to throw Lowell’s formal showcases discrepancies between House Committee operating budgets that are little known among students. Several HoCo chairs — tasked with planning semesterly formals, Housing Day festivities, Yardfest block parties, and weekly House-wide events — agreed that much of the House’s social life rests on formals.

“It’s the big event,” Currier HoCo Co-Chair Giovani S. Gomez-Orozco ’27 said of Quad formal.

When the class of 2028 was sorted into their upperclassmen residential Houses last month, they heard a reassuring message from administrators and advising staff: all Houses are created equal. But many House residents spun another narrative — espousing the age-old story that their House is the best — with HoCo members leading the charge.

Roseanne O. Strategos ’25 said that she’s witnessed Winthrop HoCo become more active over the past two years, which she said has directly enhanced her residential experience.

“They’ve been a lot more creative, especially in the past two years, and House community has been doing really really well because of that,” she said. “Having a really active HoCo has really really made the difference.”

But with different budgets, revenue streams, and degrees of extravagance at events, resident satisfaction with House social calendars varies across the River and Quad. The Crimson spoke with HoCo chairs from all 12 upperclassmen Houses about how they prioritize spending to bring House traditions to life.

Financing Festive Formals

House formals are a beloved semesterly outlet for Harvard students to let off steam before final exams begin — but they range in location, amenities, and entertainment.

HoCo chairs said they try to pull out all the stops for their formals — from a live band of entirely House residents at Adams’ formal to a live camel promised at Lowell’s Friday bash — but must consider costs in selecting venues and themes.

Kirkland, Leverett, Quincy, and Winthrop Houses traditionally organize off-campus formals, while others like Lowell and the Quad Houses alternate between external venues in the fall and on-campus venues in the spring.

This year, however, Leverett will host their spring formal in the dining hall due to “ever-increasing” venue costs and the hopes for “higher attendance,” Leverett HoCo Chair Hayden Graham ’26 said.

After attending Eliot’s Fête and Lowell’s Bacchanalia, Graham said he was inspired by how the two “transformed their dining halls and made their own Houses into a really beautiful venue.”

“There’ll definitely be a lot more costs associated with getting the dhall to look really nice,” he added. “But I hope that one product of having the formal on campus in our dining hall will be hopefully higher attendance.”

Winthrop House, which has traditionally held their spring formal on a yacht, will be hosting this year’s formal at the New England Aquarium, though they also considered the possibility of hosting on campus.

“A lot of the other Houses have much lower costs for the formals because Eliot is thrown in their courtyard and Lowell is thrown in their dining hall, so their venues basically cost nothing,” Winthrop HoCo chair Kevin Lin ’26 said. “Even if their tickets are pretty cheap, the margins are still pretty high.”

Certain Houses like Adams have solely stuck to in-House formals resulting in “neat secondary effects” of decreasing ticket costs and increased accessibility, said Santiago Pardo Sanchez ’16, an Adams House tutor and former HoCo co-chair.

House neighborhoods, like River East, often collaborate on fall formals because of the “tight community” and funding logistics, according to Mather HoCo Co-Chair M. Faseeh Jawed ’27.

“Hosting an event on your own is much more expensive than dividing by two for an event that is hosted by two houses or three houses,” Jawed said. “That saves up a lot of money for all the other events that we spend on as well.”

Formal ticket sales might be able to make the difference for a HoCo looking to make ends meet. Last semester, Lowell HoCo brought in $20,000 in combined formal tickets and merchandise sales, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Tickets for Yule Ball — Lowell’s winter formal — were sold at $18 apiece, $7 cheaper than the River East formal’s tickets. The Lowell HoCo also sold merchandise at least twice throughout the semester, once with shirts designed for parents visiting during family weekend.

Several HoCo chairs said that formals are not money-making opportunities, as the committees balance high production costs and keeping ticket prices low. Some said they do not turn a profit from House formal tickets.

Pforzheimer HoCo chair Aiden J. Bowers ’26 said that the Quad Houses only make “a little bit of revenue” off of the annual Quad spring formal and Lin said that Winthrop doesn’t “make or lose money” on formals.

“HoCo will fundraise with other small events throughout the year to fundraise for formal,” Kirkland residential tutor Yoseph D. Boku ’21 said. “They’re usually not profiting from those.”

‘Making Use of the Funds’

To finance House formals and events, HoCos primarily rely on a semesterly grant — $7,950 this spring — from the Student Activities Fee distributed by the Dean of Students Office, as well as money collected in House laundry and vending machines. The Crimson reported in October that for the past two academic years, the DSO allocated $204,250 to HoCos.

Despite this equal distribution, HoCo budgets still range significantly from House to House.

Lowell HoCo chair Behruz Mahmudov ’26 said the Houses compiled all the HoCos’ financials and “Lowell had spent the most amount of money last year, and we are expected to spend more this coming year.”

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Though Mahmudov would not specify how much the difference amounted to, he told The Crimson’s FlyBy blog that the Lowell HoCo spends “$10,000 more than all the other Houses.”

Under the Undergraduate Council — the College’s student government prior to the Harvard Undergraduate Association — all HoCos were required to submit their budgets for approval in order to be eligible for $12,000 of House-designated UC grants. In 2016, the UC published the House’s budgets publicly, revealing disparities across Houses.

The HUA does not budget for House-specific funding, and HoCo budgets are not public.

Beyond the SAF, HoCos can generate a few other revenue streams to pad their coffers — including formal tickets, merch sales, and grants.

“There’s not a lot of spaces in which HoCos can make money,” said Bowers, who is a Crimson Arts editor. “Formals and merch are basically some of the very few ways that we can make any money to go back into our House.”

Some Houses rely on unique systems to bolster their budgets. Eliot is the only House to charge its residents House dues — a $65 annual fee that covers Eliotites’ two tickets to the House’s winter and spring formal. For freshmen newly sorted into the House, dues are $35.

While House dues are optional, they are the only way to acquire tickets to Eliot’s esteemed formal, Fête. Eliot has billed its residents House dues since 1982, when the dues were just $10.

Eliot HoCo wrote in a Tuesday email to residents that House dues enable “cheaper formal ticket prices” compared to other Houses, and that certain students receiving financial aid can pay for their House dues using the Students Events Fund.

To fund events, some HoCos use external grants such as from the First Year Social Committee and the HUA. While theoretically available to all, utilization of these grants is dependent on HoCo’s individual outreach.

Mahmudov said that Lowell uses “Khurana cash” — or student-initiated programming allocated by the DSO for residential life — to fund HoCo events.

According to College spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo, student-initiated programming is “special funds that can be disbursed by the DSO which is House/Yard funding available to every House in the same amount (if applied for).”

“Some of the Khurana cash events that we have also planned for this year include a petting zoo,” Mahmudov said, adding that Lowell will also use the funds for a bouncy house, laser tag, and outings.

In other Houses, student-initiated programming is more commonly applied for by individual students, rather than facilitated applications through the HoCo.

When hosting the second annual “QuinSki” ski-themed party this year, Quincy HoCo worked with the First Year Social Committee to promote the event to freshmen and the FYSC provided a “small grant” for the event, according to HoCo chair Varun Suraj ’26.

Palumbo wrote in a statement that House-organized parties like Heaven and Hell, Glowell, Mather Lather, and Quinski can receive FYSC funding “based on the individual HoCo’s decision to pursue it as an option.”

Some House tutors also host additional House-wide events, which draw on a budget separate from the HoCo’s. Pfoho tutors host “Hygges” — House-wide study breaks with cider and donuts — nearly every other week, according to Pfoho tutor Lucas Woodley ’23.

“The tutors in Pfoho are super, super active, which I think is really important to how full our social calendar is,” Bowers said.

Kirkland tutors also host weekly Boat Clubs, baking fresh cookies for Kirkland residents every week, according to Joy R. Ho ’26, Kirkland HoCo co-chair.

‘By Far the Best’

Students said House formals showcased the most noticeable differences for students, stirring envy and pride among House populations.

“There’s a disparity between Houses sometimes, like Fête is so much nicer than Adams formal, as much as that hurts to say,” Adams resident M. Muqtader Omari ’25 said.

Omari said he noticed that Fête utilizes “a lot more funding towards the event than a normal formal,” adding that he wishes all the Houses could “get more funding” for formals.

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Quincy resident Joao H.T. Santos ’25 said he expects Quincy formal attendees to mostly be its own residents as other Houses are “doing more fun things.”

Santos added that he was jealous of Winthrop’s aquarium-based formal.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s so cool. I want to go there,’” he said. “If I can go to it, I will go.”

Eliot residents Johnny R. Miri ’26 and Henry P. Moss IV ’26, a Crimson Editorial editor, said that “Fête is by far the best” House formal.

“We don’t have to advertise on other House lists. Have you ever seen a Fête advertisement on any other House list?” Moss said. “We don’t need to — everyone knows.”

Each year, Eliot residents covertly sell their Fête tickets to non-residents, with prices commonly exceeding $100. Miri said that “there’s a big market” for Fête tickets, but declined to name the going rate in order “to protect the market.”

Competition for Fête tickets is so fierce that a student proposed setting a $115 floor on resale prices on the Eliot resident email list on Thursday.

Strategos attended Fête last year and found it “underwhelming, to be honest,” she said. “I think House pride factors into that one. And the exclusivity of it.”

But ultimately, students said they were unfazed by the differences across Houses, expressing appreciation for their own House’s HoCos.

Monae N. Stancil ’27, a member of Adams HoCo, said that it’s “all about” how residents “insert” themselves and engage with House pride.

“Being on HoCo has definitely given me more House spirit,” she said. “How you feel about your House really depends on how you engage with it.”

Sofia H. Detjen ’27, a Quincy resident, said she felt a bigger budget is not the most defining factor for a successful HoCo.

“If anything, it’s the people who are on HoCo who make the biggest difference,” she said. “If you have people who aren’t being creative, who are planning those events with all that money, then you won’t really get anything out of it.”

“Whatever the Quincy budget is, I’m not sure — they do a really good job with it,” Detjen said.

Each student proudly concluded their interview with an assertion that their House is the best.

—Staff writer Hiral M. Chavre can be reached at hiral.chavre@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @h_chavre.

—Staff writer Darcy G Lin can be reached at darcy.lin@thecrimson.com.